The Polk County Commissioners met Tuesday morning at the Polk County Government Center approving their consent agenda including payment of $124.69 to Hewlett Packard, Inc. of Boston, MA for two displays and a payment of $986.00 to Bergan Travel, Inc. of Thief River Falls for airfare for a trial witness. The board also voted to waive tip fees on the demolition of an old steam plant for the Care and Share in Crookston.
The commissioners received an update from the building committee on several needs for county buildings including the Government Center Elevator, roofing, HVAC and remodeling at the Human Service Center in East Grand Forks, and roofing needs for the Government Center, Juvenile Center and Justice Center.
The existing elevator has stopped working several times this year, and the commissioners will review quotes next Tuesday for the cutting of a shaft and installation of a new elevator with the current elevator kept as a freight elevator. Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting said the staff would work on some funding options for the elevator along with the needed upgrades to the Human Service Center. “We’re still working on the assumption that we can get this done yet this summer,” said Whiting. “Next Tuesday the board will meet and hopefully go through quotes to select a contractor and get going on that. We also talked about our other buildings, where the East Side building could use some remodeling, a new roof, and an HVAC system. We talked about the money, how to pay for it, and what our options are. Staff is going to work on those and report back in July.”
The Human Service Center did receive a roughly 30 percent remodel earlier this year for the portion of the building rented to the Northwest Mental Health Center explained Whiting. “We did probably about 30 percent of the building to work with Northwest Mental Health to upgrade their offices and expand their floor space,” said Whiting. “They are a paying tenant in that building, so there are some revenue benefits to us. The rest of the building we have some other tenants plus our own Public Health and Social Service departments. It’s time for a facelift over there on that space. Plus, it has the traditional leaking roof and a heating and cooling system that’s not reliable. The building was built 30-35 years ago, so we’ve gotten our money out of it, but we’re going to have to look ahead and reinvest to put it in good working order. It takes time to put together, 90 percent of these things is the planning side, so we’re doing our work. The board is involved and interested, so we’ll see what comes here in the next few months.”
The board was also informed that the roof at the Juvenile Center could be replaced at any time as County Staff have been patching leaks for about three years. And the roofs of the Government Center and Justice Center are also coming up on the replacement schedule within the next 5-8 years.
The License Center remodel is underway on the main floor of the Government Center which has resulted in the relocation of the center’s routine operations to different locations within the Government Center explains Director of Public Records Michelle Cote. “Our License Center has been moved to its temporary location,” said Cote. “It is downstairs in what people would know as the old driver’s license room where people used to take exams. We have everybody set up downstairs and are providing the services in that room. The DNR functions such as boats, ATVs, game, and fish are upstairs in the taxpayer service center while we are remodeling.”
Cote expects the remodel and temporary locations will be in effect for about 60 days. The County also received notice that the MNLARS reimbursement grant had been recalculated since last week’s meeting. As a result, the County will receive a little over $200 less than the original calculation explains Cote. “I received notification from the Department of Public Safety that our grant amount had changed,” said Cote. “It was a slight reduction of $224, so our new grant amount is $39,608.97, which is due on Friday. So we will be getting that ready to submit this week.”
The board passed a resolution approving Blue Plus and UCare as the Managed Care Organizations for providing managed health care services in Polk County. They also awarded a bid for the replacement of two box culverts in Andover and Fanny Townships to Gladden Construction Inc, out of La Porte for $546,246.70. The board reviewed statistics on the State of Minnesota’s Women, Infants and Children program as well as approved an out-of-state travel request for Public Health’s Sue Thompson to a training institute for the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America with expenses paid by Drug Free Communities funds.
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