The Polk County Board of Commissioners met earlier this week inside the Polk County Government Center. Commissioner Mark Holy was absent from the meeting. A large portion of the meeting was spent with the board hearing various topics from Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting.
APPROVAL OF ARCHITECT’S FEES FOR JUSTICE CENTER PROJECTS
Whiting first came before the board asking for the approval of architect fees for ICON Architecture for the re-roofing and a new boiler at the Polk County Justice Center. Polk County Facilities Director Rick Langlois joined Whiting and explained why the new boiler is being added and why the scope of the project has changed. “We’re looking at this for a couple of reasons but the biggest is probably that it would be energy saving,” said Langlois. “These new boilers are much more energy efficient and we’re going to size them in such a way that we can utilize the full capacity of it. We’re looking towards heating a domestic water system as well as a hot water system and these new efficient boilers would be utilized 100% in doing that.”
The board approved the request, and the total cost is $92,500.
APPROVAL OF SOCIAL SERVICES MANAGER DESCRIPTION
Whiting then asked the board to consider approving a position description for a Social Services Manager. “We’ve actually already hired for this position,” said Whiting. “This is an updated version of the job title and job description which is slightly different than it was before. We use the State’s Merit System and according to their qualifications the description needed to be different for this kind of position. We had to bring it before the board again so they could approve it now that we’ve modified it.”
The board approved the item unanimously and the position will be directly under Social Services Director Karen Warmack.
PURCHASE OF CUSTOMIZED ROLL-OFF CONTAINERS
Whiting then spoke on behalf of Jon Steiner and Environmental Services asking the board to approve the purchase of one ash roll-off container, and one insulated roll-off container from H&S Manufacturing Inc of Stephen for a total amount of $30,200. “We cycle through roll-off containers for a couple of reasons. As time goes on, they acquire quite a bit of wear,” said Whiting. “One of the roll-offs we’re purchasing is insulted because the garbage can be very wet and during the winter it freezes, and it becomes difficult to get the material out. The other one is specialized so it can withstand the ash that comes out of the incinerator. As time goes on, that puts a lot of wear on that metal material, however, so it’s important that we cycle through and get new ones.”
The board approved the purchases unanimously.
SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MODIFICATIONS TO THE 2020 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
The last item Whiting presented to the board was setting a date for a public hearing on modifications to the 2020 Capital Improvement Plan. “We had a Capital Improvements Bond in 2020 for a series of projects and we have since decided not to proceed forward with a couple of them,” said Whiting. “So we have some money left over and we want to use those bonding funds and couple them with a later bond to help pay for improvements that are coming to the Justice Center this year.”
Because of this, the board needs to hold another public hearing on the use of the funds. The board approved the motion, and the public hearing is set for Tuesday, April 25, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. inside the Polk County Government Center.
The next Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting will be on Tuesday, April 4 at 8:00 a.m. inside the Polk County Government Center.
