By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

With construction about to begin on two major Ellis County building projects, county commissioners are renewing calls for construction manager to oversee the projects.

At Monday night’s commission meeting, Commissioner Dean Haselhorst said he was originally against the idea but said the size of the projects warrants more oversight.

“Put that responsibility on somebody that maybe does that for a living, versus everybody trying to pitch in and do it,” he said.

Haselhorst said he believes the manager should be an outside party and added it should be someone who can read blueprints and be at the construction site five days a week, for the length of the construction.

Last spring, the commission received interest from four candidates to fill the construction manager role. County Administrator Greg Sund said staff would recontact them about the possible position.

The commissioners also expressed displeasure with the architect on the Emergency Services Building, formerly the EMS/Rural Fire Building.

Sund said during a recent meeting with the architect and engineer on the Emergency Services Building the county learned it will have to construct a radio tower next to the building because the roof cannot support antennas.

Ellis County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Ring said the facility is designed to be used as a backup to dispatch and antennas are needed at the location.

Ring also said during talks with the architects, county administrators were told there would be antennas on the roof.

But the architect did not account for those antennas in the final plans.

County staff has set up a meeting with Nex-Tech to discuss and plan the tower.

Also during that meeting, officials discussed changing the outside color of the building because the original two-tone color proposed by the architect is not available from the manufacturer.

The color change would cost $6,783. Leaving the building, roof and trim all one color would save the county approximately $7,589.

Commissioner Swede Holmgren expressed concern about spending the extra money on the color change.

In other business:

• The commission approved a bid for $70,475 from High Plains Roofing of Hays to replace the south third of the roof at the 718 Main Administrative Building.

• Approved the county entering into a 12-month contract with Eagle Communications for one year for 2-gigabit fiber at the former N.E.W. building for the cost of $28,600.

• Awarded BG Consultants the bid for the biannual bridge inspection of 208 county bridges and 22 bridges in the city of Hays for $19,136. The city of Hays is responsible for cost of its bridge inspections.