By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission voted to move forward with the 718 Main Administrative renovation project Monday night by awarding the bid to Paul-Wertenberger Construction for $709,000.
Ellis County Administrator Greg Sund said now it is up to the Hays construction company to work with the architect to lay out a timeframe for construction, noting the company has 180 days to complete the work.
Commissioner Barbara Wasinger said she is happy the project is advancing.
“I’m very pleased to be at this point,” she said. “To start moving forward, it’s a very exciting day. A little bit bittersweet at this point, but still a good day.”
Now that the bid has been awarded, the commission can discuss what to do with staircase in the center of the building, which formerly housed Commerce Bank’s downtown location.
County officials have discussed removing the basement portion, although it would leave a hole on the ground floor that they would still have to deal with.
Sund said the county will talk with the contractor about finding a way to create a fire break between the main floor and the basement.
With the 718 Main project now in the works, county officials turn their focus to the two other projects — the EMS/Rural Fire building and the Law Enforcement Center/courthouse, which are being funded by a special sales tax issue passed by voters a year ago Wednesday.
Sund said one of the main reasons the EMS/Rural Fire building is behind is because they changed the structure. After the original bids came in well over the expected cost of $3.5 million to 3.6 million, the commission elected to go with a metal building as a cost-cutting measure.
Sund said when you go from a building that the engineer can design to a pre-engineered steel building the architect has to adjust the plans to accommodate the new building.
“It was just a far more complex project,” Sund said.
Sund also said they are a little bit behind on the Law Enforcement Center/courthouse because the original plan was to keep staff in the building while construction was underway.The county now has decided to move staff to a different location, which would trim the construction timeframe from 2 ½ years to almost 14 months.
Currently, the architect and county staff are searching for a location to house county staff and law enforcement during construction.
Staff has toured the Kennedy School, portions of the Hadley Center and the former PATH Lab. But Sund said they were notified last week Kennedy is no longer an option.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved a five-year lease/purchase agreement to purchase breathing apparatus for Rural Fire No. 1.
• Approved four applications for High Risk Rural Road Grant applications for improvements to Old U.S. 40 from Yocemento to Ellis. Public Works Director Mike Graf said if the projects are approved by KDOT, it would reduce the costs of a project that is in the design phase.