Polk County Environmental Services will be moving into their new building Monday. The move comes several months after anticipated due to a number of setbacks, most recently an issue with the concrete floor cracking and pitting.
Environmental Services Administrator Jon Steiner said that the epoxy finish still needed a couple of days to cure after All-Finish Concrete came in to fix the issue. “We’re moving currently,” said Steiner. “Computers are being set up right now, we’ve had some of the stuff from the old building moved over there. There is a limitation with some of the floor still needing to cure, so we can’t roll things across there yet. But we should be using 90 percent of the floor by Monday morning.”
Polk County reduced the retainage, the amount held onto for final payment, to $150,000 last week to allow the contractor to pay some of the subcontractors who are still waiting for payment due to the delays of the building. The remaining retainage includes damages and costs to fix the flooring explained Steiner. “The builder asked if we would reduce the retainage, the 5 percent withheld was the maximum allowed by law,” said Steiner. “There were several contractors who did their work long ago who expected they were going to get their money long before now when the project was expected to be done. We calculated out what was still left on the project and what was possible as liquated damages as well as the corrective things we had to do.”
The transfer station will also receive a rollout bucket for loading recyclables on the tip floor. The buck will roll forward into the truck instead of a typical bucket moving down and in closer to the operator. That will allow the recyclables to roll out into the truck instead of falling in alongside it. The cost of the 5.5 cubic yard roll-out bucket for the payloader will be $27,650.00 purchased from Ziegler CAT of Crookston.
The commissioners also approved the release of the retainage for the Fosston Resource Recovery Facility pending notification from the Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry that they had certified the payroll of the contractor, Vercon Inc. of Menahga. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has set a performance stack test for the Resource Recovery Facility for April 22 through April 26. The County is required to conduct and pass the test every three years. Element Air of Medina will conduct the test for $41,488.00.
