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County board split on Justice Center basement expansion
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Board appeared to be split when it came to supporting plans to expand the basement level of the proposed Justice Center by 11,880 square feet.
The rift surfaced during the Feb. 16 board meeting when commissioners Jack Miller and Tom Bjerke questioned whether the county should spend an additional $692,190 to change a large section in the proposed facility from a cement slab to a basement.
The county is in the process of requesting a conditional use permit (CUP) to the city of Caledonia that would include basement space under the northeast end of the facility.
The additional floor space to the basement level would increase the over-all floor space to nearly 77,000 square feet. Through court-imposed mediation, the city and county agreed on a 65,000 square foot floor space maximum.
Last year following the mediation session, the county agreed to scale back the size of the Justice Center by approximately 20,000 square feet. To do this, architects took about 12,000 square feet of floor space out of a large portion of what would have been the basement and did away with a portion of the second floor.
The Caledonia City Council learned at their Jan. 25 meeting that the county would like to have that basement portion put back into the plans. It’s not a space issue, more of an engineering one…unstable soils.
Soil borings taken late last fall indicated that a cement slab could not be poured on top of the existing soil, because it was unstable. All of the dirt would need to be removed from the section of the facility that had been changed to a slab to get under the mediated 65,000 square foot limit and then replaced with a more “compactible” type of soil.
The county contends it would be a waste of money to remove all the unstable soil and then fill it back in. They asked the council to consider allowing basement walls and floors to be poured in that section of the facility with a written understanding that the area could not be used for an agreed number of years.
When Miller learned that the nearly $700,000 change would be “above and beyond” the estimated price tag of $19.3 million for the Justice Center, he spoke up.
“In light of what I heard at the human service meeting this morning (anticipated cuts in funding by $347 million state-wide) and the cuts to our state aid ($700,000 in 2010) I have a very hard time supporting a plan that puts more of a burden on the taxpayers of this county. The La Crescent School District is looking at cutting $800,000 from its budget. Things are tight all over and we’re looking at expanding.”
Commissioner Larry Connery said he agreed with Miller that these are very tight times, but putting a basement under that portion of the facility instead of the poured floor would cost less than $58 per square feet. “That’s very inexpensive floor space. In the long run, I feel this would be a good move when it comes to long-term planning,” Connery said.
Commissioner Dave Corcoran pointed out the $19 million figure was an estimate made quite a while ago. “Bids have been coming in considerably less this year than they were a year or two ago,” he said.
Corcoran went on to note that he has discussed the change with several building contractors who said it could possibly cost the county as much money to remove the unstable soils, put more compactible soils back in and pour the footings and the slab.
“They figured the cost would be really close between the slab and a basement,” Corcoran said. It was estimated it would take 650 to 700 dump truck loads of compactible soil to pour a slab upon.
“And that’s a lot of extra wear and tear on the city streets,” Connery pointed out.
Commissioner Tom Bjerke said he really didn’t feel good about going back to the city and asking for a change in the mediated settlement. “I agree with Jack,” Bjerke stated. “I don’t think now is the right time to add any more to this project. $700,000 is a big figure to add to the taxpayers. And we would be going back on what we agreed on.”
Connery also agreed with what Bjerke said but asked, “if the bids come in real low and we could have had this built-in expansion for the future at a very low per-square-foot price, will we be kicking ourselves for not including this?”
“My gut feeling is that we just shouldn’t add any more to this right now,” Bjerke countered.
“Houston County isn’t seeing the kind of growth they are across the river,” Miller pointed out. “We keep hearing that La Crosse County built their jail too small and had to add onto it. Well, La Crosse County is seeing significant growth. I haven’t seen any population projections that indicate any growth in Houston County in the foreseeable future.”
When asked about his thoughts on the issue, Commissioner Bob Augedahl said he felt the county board should see if the Caledonia City Council is willing to work with the county. “I think we should wait and see what the city has to say,” Augedahl suggested.
The commissioners agreed to table the issue until the Feb. 23 meeting, which would be the morning following the city council meeting, where the county’s CUP request would be reviewed.
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