Building near fairgrounds entrance to be 100’ X 50’
Dirt work is expected to begin this fall at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds for the planned 2025 construction of a new headquarters for the county Extension office. The county commission had planned to award the bid for clearing the site near the entrance to the fairgrounds at Monday’s regular meeting, but had to delay the decision because of a technical error.
Commissioner Francis McDonald, who had collected the required three competitive bids for the project, said one of the bids had disappeared from his smart phone and therefore was not available for inspection by the board.
McDonald said since a site survey was not done beforehand, all of the bids contained a contingency in case a soft spot or some other problem was found during the dirt work. He said the land, which is now a gravel parking area in the northeast corner of the fairgrounds, is believed to have previously been farm ground, so it seems unlikely the contractor would find an old foundation, cistern or other anomaly there. However, he said if something was found the cost of the site prep would go up.
McDonald said the contractors anticipated doing the dirt work this fall so that construction could begin in the spring. He said the Ag Society wants to reuse the gravel elsewhere at the fairgrounds, so it will be moved first and then digging for footings will take place.
According to McDonald, the Extension building will be 50 by 100 feet in size with the pad being 5 feet wider all around. He said it will also be raised a foot above grade for drainage purposes, noting that other buildings at the fairgrounds were built too low.
Without the needed bid in hand, the board decided to table the decision until the Oct. 21 meeting. The board will not meet this Monday because of the Columbus Day holiday.
The commissioners on Monday also discussed the situation of file storage by County Attorney Doug Dexter’s office which has moved from its previous location across the street into the first floor of the courthouse. The board has been discussing the purchase of used filing cabinets in which to store case files the office is required by law to keep, and Vice President John Thomas who was acting chair in the absence of Chairman Rich Nelson, reported he was unable to reach a deal with the person who had given Dexter a quote on the necessary cabinets.
Dexter was asking on Monday whether he could pay attorney Mike Powell, from whom he previously rented office space, $50 a month to continue to store the files in the basement of his office across the street from the courthouse.
While no formal vote was taken, the board advised Dexter that he should continue to pay Powell for the storage out of his budget until the county makes arrangements to purchase the necessary filing cabinets so that the files can be moved to the courthouse. In the meantime, Thomas said he would continue to watch auctions where he said such cabinets are selling for low prices because of the number of offices going paperless.