Lehman: OK. Our next item of business will be Dwight Dobberstein, project architect for Neumann Monson. He’s got several projects here to discuss. Good morning, Dwight.

Neumann Monson Project Architect AIA Dwight Dobberstein: Good morning. That was good timing. First to discuss is an update on the Courthouse. I have a handout here, to help you. Things are going well up there, and we’ve got a few things to discuss. They’re on schedule. I’ve had good cooperation from the judges and all the staff. I’m sure it’s always a problem when you have remodeling. We had some additional expenses, as we talked about. The floor in the women’s restroom was a little low, and we ended up putting in the new wood there to level it. We did some checking on it; it was not a structural problem, but we didn’t want to pour any concrete on it, to fill, we didn’t want to add any additional weight, so we used wood. So that ended up costing $1,682.21, and that would be a change order that we would have to approve, or you would have to approve. I felt pretty confident, since we had already talked to the Board about that coming up, that I told them to go ahead with that. So that is done. Then, I just have a recap here of the budget. We had $147,000 budgeted. The bid price on this project was $134,100, so with that floor repair, and then our fees to date, we’re over the budget slightly, about a couple of thousand dollars. So I wanted to make you aware of that, because there was a couple of issues yet. The courtroom ceiling on the 2nd floor has to be patched. The contractor included patching part of it, so he could get at the plumbing pipes underneath. We worked with them to try to talk them into coming in from above, but in final analysis it just wasn’t possible. So he had to go underneath, in the courtroom ceiling, and take out a piece of it, and to patch that back in, we couldn’t find a ceiling tile to match. I was just up at the Courthouse, and you’ve got 4 choices there, and there’s 3 of them that look very close, and I think would do the job. But I wanted you to know that it doesn’t quite match. If someone was really to look for it, they’d notice that. If you want to replace the entire ceiling in that courtroom to a more accessible type, 2 by 2, typical to what’s in here, the cost would be $2,367. And that’s a decision you could make and let us know about. We could tell the contractor to go either way, either to replace the whole ceiling or just patch it in best you can.

Stutsman: This $2,300 is to replace the whole ceiling?

Dobberstein: Yes, on that second floor.

Stutsman: And to just put a good…

Dobberstein: Well, a 2 by 2 ceiling tile so that it would all match. But now…

Stutsman: All right. That’s this quote here?

Dobberstein: Yes.

Stutsman: OK. All right.

Dobberstein: So, if you just want to let them patch it as close as they can get, there’s no cost there.

Thompson: Did you see the…

Dobberstein: I saw the tile. I think most people wouldn’t even notice.

Stutsman: And that’s the option where there’s no cost?

Dobberstein: Right.

Neuzil: (Inaudible) that option which we should do.

Thompson: Yes, I like that. And this isn’t going to be one of those things where every time we walk in there, we’re going to notice that?

Dobberstein: Well, if you’re looking at it, you’ll say, oh, that’s different, they must have patched it. But most people who walk in don’t look up and examine the ceiling.

Lehman: These are all removable?

Dobberstein: Yes, they’re removable.

Lehman: I’ve seen people do is put those in the corner, bring the other ones over, so it’s not right in the middle.

Dobberstein: Well, this is right by the front door. It’s kind of unique. It’s a one by one tile, and a little different lay-in system, not as accessible as these, for example.

Lehman: They wouldn’t be interchangeable from one location in the room to the other.

Dobberstein: Yes. We could try that. Unless we have some money in some other budget, if you want to do it right, we should replace the whole ceiling. But I think we can get by with just patching it. If you don’t like the looks of it, we can always come back and replace it. Then this last item is the model toilet partitions. Last time, we reported that the partitions on this contractor were an additional $1,500. We checked with him, and he had the same supplier as the other bidder. We think the other bidder made a mistake, and that’s why they had a deduct, actually.

Thompson: So, what’s in the contract?

Dobberstein: What we have in the contract is plastic laminate partitions, which, for $1,500 it would really be a shame not to be able to go with marble, because it would certainly last a lot longer.

Thompson: I think so, too, because in the downstairs bathrooms, when it was remodeled before, that’s what they used, and the laminate pulls away, and then there’s places where it’s just missing and it looks terrible.

Dobberstein: Certainly is not as good a partition, yes, you’re right. So those are the issues to date on the restroom job.

Lehman: I assume that you need to know the floor repair has to be done.

Dobberstein: The floor repair, yes, is already done.

Lehman: How about the marble. How soon do you need to know?

Dobberstein: Well, we have shop drawings submitted now, and we are just in the process of reviewing them and sending them back, so we would like to get that ordered right away.

Lehman: Do you need some action next week to take care of that?

Dobberstein: We could wait a week. It just delays the partitions a week, and we’re going to be okay as far as getting this done.

Lehman: A lot of Board members have been up there at different things, and maybe we just as well take a look at some of these things, just to know in your mind what we’re talking about.

Stutsman: I’d like, can someone explain to me the process for a change order? Does that come to the Board?

Dobberstein: It should, yes.

Stutsman: Is that what we’re doing here?

Dobberstein: Yes.

Stutsman: But how come it’s already done?

Dobberstein: The floor repair that we didn’t…we couldn’t hold up, I guess. Since I had already been to the Board and talked to them about the fact that there was going to be some additional price on repairing this floor, and we didn’t know how much, I guess we took it upon ourselves to tell the contractor to proceed. But normally, yes, it always has to come to the Board for approval, and we’re a little bit struggling in this because we don’t have anybody that really represents the County. So now that Rueben is starting to attend the meeting, I think that will help that situation.

Stutsman: I don’t know how the rest of the Board feels. I’m really uncomfortable with change orders being done before the Board approves them. It’s after the fact now, so, but I guess, just in the future, I just would like to have that discussion in a Board meeting before it’s done. It’s just not this issue, anything like this that involves money, I’d like to have it discussed in a public meeting before it’s approved.

Dobberstein: That’s the proper way; you’re exactly right.

Thompson: If we, I’m not hearing much sentiment for the courtroom ceiling tiles, but if we added the $1,500 for the marble partitions, that would mean that the total project would be $4,442 over budget, that we would be adding to the budget?

Dobberstein: If you added the model partitions. I didn’t add it up, that sounds about right.

Stutsman: Well, we’re this far into it.

Thompson: It wasn’t budgeted, but I think we could accommodate that in our budget.

Stutsman: Yes, and quite frankly, on one side, when you get into an old building, I guess we should be thrilled that it’s not any more than this, as far as some of the issues that we could have gotten into.

Thompson: Yes, it’s like a 3% increase.

Dobberstein: Well, we’re through the scary parts now, so there shouldn’t be any big surprises.

Thompson: No surprises.

Lehman: Well, I hear some sentiment to approve the marble partition…

Stutsman: …and the change order for the floor.

Lehman: And the change order. I feel if there’s anything that comes up, maybe we should put that on for next week.

Dobberstein: OK.

Lehman: Because I know you want to… I don’t know how soon they’ll be needing to make a choice on the partitions here, but…

Dobberstein: Well, they’re the last thing that goes in, so, it just delays use of the facilities.

Lehman: If you have to order it, there’s some time delay on that too.

Dobberstein: Right.

Lehman: A consensus to put that on next week for action? We can discuss it more if anything else comes up, and if you get a chance to slip up there and take a look at what’s been done so far.

Stutsman: And where would this money come from? It’ll come out of the Capital Projects budget?

Thompson: Yes, and I think, we would have that much in interest, probably, that we can reallocate.

Harney: I would like to take a look at this tile, too, to see how far off that is. If there’s something we can do by patching in rather than replacing, leave that open if it isn’t going to match.

Thompson: If we were going to come over there and look at it, where would we…is it standing around in the courtroom, or?

Dobberstein: There’s a hole in the ceiling, and there’s 4 tiles that are in there that they tried to match, and you’ll see them.

Lehman: They are in place now?

Dobberstein: They’re in place.

Lehman: If you’re looking for it, you should be able to pick it out.

Dobberstein: One that’s very obviously not matching, and 3 that are pretty close. They’re all in a row, and I think you’ll see them.

Lehman: Are these something that could be painted? I know some people, I’ve seen them take them down, and with a roller…

Stutsman: Yes, they can do a great job of matching paints anymore.

Dobberstein: Yes.

Stutsman: I mean, just take the one down, not everything.

Dobberstein: The color is not too bad, actually, it’s the texture that’s a little bit different. One’s more linear, and it’s fissuring, and one is not. I guess you can take a look at it. I don’t think…

Lehman: Should we have a public tile contest?

Thompson: So we (inaudible) there by next Thursday.

Stutsman: Yes, and if there’s a change, if 3 Board members say no, we can’t live with that different-colored tile, then we can certainly make that adjustment before we take a formal vote.

Dobberstein: OK. The next item I had for you is our agreement. I have copies of a contract with us to work on the Jail remodeling and re-roofing. I have that; I can give copies to the County Attorney for review. It’s basically the same agreement you’ve had on the last few projects, and we, I guess, are looking at doing that project in 2 phases, really. We decided it would be best to split it into a roofing project and then a remodeling project. Primarily, the reason for that is we think we can get the roofing project out, and bid, right away, and done, prior to June 30, so that it could be part of this fiscal year. I understand we had, I think it was $250,000 budgeted for this, this year, and I think it’s another $350,000 next year.

Thompson: Not all of the $250,000 was for the roof.

Dobberstein: Well, right. But we need to spend the $250,000. We think we could do the roof as a separate project, and get that done and finished by June, and then come back with another project later in the spring to do all the other mechanical work that needs to be done in the jail, and some remodeling work. There’s a whole list of things there. Part of what we’re doing on the roofing project, is getting the cooling tower out of the boiler room and up on the roof. It’s normally a piece of equipment you put outside, because it produces a lot of moisture and humidity and it’s causing problems in the boiler room, and things are getting rusted in there. It’s easier to put it on the ground, and it would save us about, maybe, $25,000 to put it on the ground, but it would take up a parking space, because it’s fairly big. It’s 8 feet wide by, I think 14 feet long by 13 feet high. So, you can tell, by putting it on that roof, it’s really going to be apparent, so we thought we would take an alternate to put a screen wall around it, so that you wouldn’t see it from the street. But that’s a decision the Board could make. They could tell you, you know, if you want to put it on the ground, and save the money, we could do that, but right now we’re planning to put it on the roof. That’s kind of what we discussed with the Sheriff, he wants to keep the parking spaces. They’re short as it is. We also have on the roof, a couple other, 3 other pieces of equipment, they’re make up air units. We actually are taking off the solar collectors; we’ll be tearing those off, and when we tear those 3 collectors off, we have to provide some make up air which now is going through the solar collectors, and so that’s another box at 3 locations on the roof.

Thompson: Is there going to be any problem with the difference in weight between the solar collectors and the new stuff?

Dobberstein: Well, the make up air units are not that heavy, but the cooling tower weighs about 14,000 pounds, and we have to span it across with a steel frame, and bear it on 2 bearing walls, there. So that’s part of the additional cost. Those bearing walls are 30 feet apart, so we need a couple of big beams, and we’ll put this on the frame, so that actually boosts it up in the air another couple of feet. So this thing will be 15 feet in the air. Those solar collectors, right now, are about 10 feet high. This is a big piece of equipment to put on the roof, but it’ll hold it up.

Stutsman: When you talk about there’s already stuff up there, was that pro, to add this up there, or con, not to put more stuff up there?

Dobberstein: Well, yes. Those 3 small make up units up there, and so, I mean, if we’re going to put those up there, I suppose you might say, well, we’ll put the cooling tower up there , and put a screen around the whole business, and save the parking space.

Stutsman: How much more is it going to cost, Dwight, to put that up there?

Dobberstein: I think, well, about $25,000 is what we considered for, well, this steel frame, the steel frame was about $5,000, but the screen wall is the big expense…

Thompson: And Sally, it’s going to dramatically change the appearance of that building.

Stutsman: Putting it on the roof?

Thompson: Yes. It’ll be a noticeable change, because…

Stutsman: This isn’t like a little air-conditioner unit.

Thompson: No.

Dobberstein: No. It’s huge.

Thompson: You come down the hill, so you actually are looking at that building from an unusual angle to start with, I would think, and a lot of times as you approach the building, you’re above it.

Dobberstein: It may be something you want to talk with Bob about, and see if you really need it.

Lehman: That would be my concern. He doesn’t want to give up the parking space, but, for the extra dollars…

Stutsman: Well, I was going to say…

Lehman: …you could paint yourself in a corner if we wanted to do some expansion of the building on the ground.

Dobberstein: Well, right.

Lehman: You’ve thoroughly checked this out, that it will hole that extra weight? That’s my concern, if we get that thing up there and we realize that the walls aren’t going to hold it.

Harney: What is the weight of that unit, again?

Dobberstein: It’s about 14,000 pounds.

Stutsman: For $25,000 we could buy some parking places. I’m sure it’s not going to be as convenient as outside the door, but jeepers, that’s…

Dobberstein: Again, most of that would be for the screen wall. That’s why I thought, let’s get a price, an alternate price for that, if you want to do it on the roof.

Stutsman: OK, so the $25,000 is the extra cost it would cost to put that on top the roof. What we’d give up is a parking spot on the ground?

Dobberstein: Right.

Stutsman: All right. And there’s no place else to put it, like, getting variance from the City to put it in the…

Dobberstein: …in the Capital Street, that’d be a good place for it.

Stutsman: Slow down traffic. It might be.

Neuzil: Really, the big expense here is just for the attractiveness of this big hunk of metal on top. How do you make a big hunk of metal look good, I guess, is the question?

Thompson: Would it be a lot of trouble to use your computer to draw us a picture of what the new construction would look like?

Dobberstein: No, that’s not a problem. We have some drawings of it, but we don’t have the screen showing. You’d like to see it, the building, with the screen…

Thompson: …of what it’s going to look like when it’s…

Neuzil: …with and without, because that’s…

Stutsman: You mean without the screen?

Neuzil: Right. We’re talking, what, $20,000 for…

Dobberstein: …for a screen, yes. Right.

Lehman: And also, you could do the same thing of where it would be located on the ground, give an idea.

Stutsman: You’re not going to put a screen on the ground?

Dobberstein: Well…

Lehman: No, but, it’s just, the parking space,

Thompson: It will have to be screened from the street a little bit, so you…

Dobberstein: You might want to consider a fence, or something, just so it would keep people out of…

Stutsman: Maintenance-wise, would it be more convenient to have it on the ground, versus trying to maintain something up on the… I don’t know how, if these things break down, or whatever.

Dobberstein: Sure, they need maintenance, but there’s a stairs that goes to the roof that’s pretty handy, and so I don’t think that’s so much an issue.

Neuzil: The other question, as this piece of equipment is removed, it’s on the first floor, right. Is there talk about what that space is going to be used for, yet?

Dobberstein: Well, it’s in the boiler room.

Neuzil: How about an exercise area?

Stutsman: I bet the Fire Department would have something to say about that. They’re funny about stuff like that.

Neuzil: I’m trying to find some room for some exercise area, that’s all.

Dobberstein: I’m sure they’ll use it for storage if nothing else.

Neuzil: Storage.

Harney: One of my questions is, if we put this kind of weight back up there and this issue about there not being footings under that building big enough to add another story, I’m kind of wondering what the offset is here on all of this. I realize there is going to be much more than 25,000 pounds.

Dobberstein: It’s going to be split. That weight is divided between 2 bearing walls and it’s going to be spread out by the time it gets down to the footings. Spread out quite a bit, so that’s not a concern.

Thompson: We’re taking off the solar collectors, which weighed something.

Dobberstein: Yes. But, we don’t have enough structure there to support it just on the roof slabs, the 8-inch cordec concrete roof slabs. So, that’s why we have to put in a steel frame to make sure it bears on the walls.

Harney: I understand that.

Stutsman: If you could get us those computer-generated pictures we could decide.

Dobberstein: Decide. I’ll bring those back next week.

Thompson: Maybe we could talk to (inaudible) a little bit.

Lehman: Your action here is an agreement for you to go ahead and pursue those bids for those projects.

Dobberstein: Well, the first action would be, yes, and agreement with Neumann Monson to start. We’ve already kind of got drawings. We’re ready to have you set a public hearing date next week for this project, as well as the addition to the Administration Building.

Thompson: Do we have our contract for the Admin Building?

Dobberstein: Yes.

Thompson: OK.

Dobberstein: Yes. We are all done there. That’s ready for public hearings. We have plans and basically they’re what you saw before. We’re filling in the space right below this room here on either side of the entrance vestibule. One side of the vestibule would have a conference room. The other side has basically 3 rooms, an office for Lora and then a reception work area for Human Services and then another office for Jeff Horne.

Stutsman: Human Resources. You said Human Services.

Dobberstein: Oh did I? I’m sorry.

Stutsman: Yes. I was just afraid people would think, oh, my gosh, we’re making some drastic changes here. Sorry.

Lehman: So, we’d actually have 2 items. One to have an agreement with Neumann Monson and then also to set the public hearing.

Dobberstein: Set the hearing for those 2 projects, yes.

Lehman: When you had mentioned this agreement, do you want to have 2 separate agreements? One for each project, one for the remodeling of the jail and one for the re-roofing to keep those separate?

Dobberstein: They are separate. We already have an agreement with you to do the Administration Building.

Lehman: You have listed here an agreement for the Jail remodeling and roofing project. Did you want to break that into 2? You had mentioned that they would be kind of 2 separate projects.

Dobberstein: No. We’d do 2 projects, but we only need one.

Lehman: One agreement?

Dobberstein: Yes.

Thompson: One for each fiscal year, basically. I think it’s pretty likely that we won’t come out exactly even on the cost. So, there will probably some cost from this year that will have to be carried over into next year that have been budgeted but won’t get spent this year.

Lehman: OK. So, we need to basically set the public hearing for formal action next week as the plan would be. OK.

Dobberstein: The second page I handed out kind of gave a schedule for those public hearings and what is required by the State law. It would show that we could open bids on April 17th and hopefully get under construction by May 1st, which hopefully winter will be done by that time.

Stutsman: We’re not going to be here March 22nd.

Dobberstein: Next week?

Thompson: No, we just cancelled that meeting.

Lehman: We had moved it to the 20th and today we took action because the room has already been reserved by a large group on the 20th. So, we’re not planning on meeting the 20th or the 22nd. The 22nd was our normal Thursday. I don’t know how that has to shuffle your publishing notice.

Dobberstein: We could slide everything down I guess until.

Stutsman: Is that going to mess you up as far as opening bids or anything?

Dobberstein: No. We haven’t sent out those plans or published that notice yet.

Stutsman: Why can’t we have both of those public hearings at the same time?

Thompson: We are.

Dobberstein: We can for projects.

Stutsman: Oh I see. OK. Unless you want to do the public hearing yourself, no, I’m teasing. We have to be here.

Recording Secretary Casie Parkins: I was going to say, as long as you had the notice ready to go, I could publish it immediately if I could take it out to the papers on the 8th. You might be able to hold the public hearing on the 15th instead of the 22nd.

Lehman: Just to keep things on course now.

Peters: You’d have to have all of the other documents ready and on file in the Auditor’s Office before that.

Dobberstein: Right.

Parkins: Yes. If you could get everything ready to go by then, we could get the public hearing notice published by probably the 11th.

Stutsman: You could see if that would work and then if that’s the case then we could.

Dobberstein: That would work for us.

Lehman: The March 8th meeting will be an evening meeting.

Parkins: I’ll have to double check with Mark, but that might work.

Lehman: The evening meeting gives you less time. If it was a morning meeting you would have had the afternoon to do some work, too. Do you want to investigate that?

Parkins: Right.

Lehman: Report back to us. OK. Does that cover all of your agenda items?

Dobberstein: I believe it does. OK, any questions for Dwight and the Board?

Stutsman: No.

Thompson: Thank you.

Lehman: Thank you very much.

Dobberstein: Thanks.

(Continued in Part 5)