The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday at the Polk County Government Center and gave the okay to move forward with going out for bid on a new elevator in the government center. The elevator is estimated to cost about $125,000 while the costs of labor and cutting a new shaft are estimated at around $80,000.
The county’s architect Scott Sosalla, Architectural Resources Inc, says it will take about three weeks to put together the letting documents and receive the bids from contractors. “We’re looking on receiving quotes on the 18th of June,” said Sosalla. “We have to prepare drawing and structural drawings to install the shaft first.”
The delivery and installation of the elevator will then take between two to three months before the new elevator is operational. “The elevator itself has about a four to five-week delivery,” said Sosalla. “Then there is about a four to five-week install after that, so we’re probably looking at late August for the completion of the second elevator.”
Polk County Facilities Director Mark Dietz believes that by installing a new elevator and keeping the old one operational that the interruption to county activities should be minimal. “Of course anytime you have construction going on there is some interruption,” said Dietz. “But I think the approach that we’re taking is going to make it a very minimal interruption because the elevator service will always be available.”
Dietz says the reality is there is a risk the county could still be without an elevator for a while but Otis, who services the elevator, does a great job maintaining the current elevator despite its age. “I don’t see that as happening,” said Dietz. “Of course, it’s always a reality that it could, but I don’t see it as happening. Otis has been really good at getting it running again for us. I think we’ll be good.”
The consent agenda to approve the May 21 minutes, authorize payment of $1,887.00 to GHA Technologies Inc of Phoenix, AZ, and authorize payment of $5,341.50 to Sarah Reese, Polk County Public Health, for six FP Contra-Nexplanon was approved. The board updated delegates to the MCIS and MCCC groups necessitated by a retirement explains Property Records Director Michelle Cote. “We have a couple of organizations that have voting rights,” said Cote. “The first one is called MCIS, and it is the cooperative association where we purchase our land records software for the recording aspect of what we do. The second is referred to as MCCC and is a county-wide organization where a lot of our tax programming information and support is channeled through. Michelle Snyder had retired, and her replacement was Sam Melbye, so he and I are the primary and alternate delegates for that.”
The board also approved a donation of $35.00 to Coordinated Victim Services from Polk County Public Health and the Agassiz Study Group. They gave Rich Sanders voting credentials to vote for the county at the upcoming National Association of Counties Conference in July and voted to move the times for their meetings on the third week of each month from 10:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. effective in July. The June meeting is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. to be followed by the Board of Review meeting at 6:00 p.m.
