Work continues to progress inside the Polk County Transfer Station, with hopes that the offices will be habitable by mid-to-late February says Polk County Environmental Services Director Jon Steiner. “The offices will start opening up in February,” said Steiner. “The plan is the first week of February the architect and builder will meet and go through everything, primarily the big systems. The following week the County will do a punch list of little things that need to be corrected and hopefully, all things will be addressed by that third week and we’ll move in.”
The office space should provide ample space for growth and for holding zoning meetings. “We have offices for the different zoning and solid waste staff, a reception area, bathrooms for the public, a large lobby area,” said Steiner. “The old building, we had to take out a bathroom just for an area for people to sit, so we learned from the old design and improved a bit. We have some meeting rooms and a larger conference/training room, so we’ll have our hearings for zoning here instead of at the courthouse. That will save us a lot of time from mobilizing up there, setting things up, taking it down and then moving it back. We also have a couple of areas with a minimal finish for code that we can expand into if the County moves an office or heaven forbid the state to require something else the county would need to hire someone for.”
Steiner also received approval Tuesday from the Polk County Commissioners for a new electrical panel for the facility that will better meet needs than the one they originally spec’d out. “As we go farther into the project and get closer to wrapping up there were some electrical things we were going to be limited on,” said Steiner. “The thought was if we split those out now, we’ll have them ready instead of having to do it at a future date. A second change order was for paint if we need another coat of paint on the sheetrock, which will be dependent on how the first coat looks.”
The staff has been working on the tip-floor since December 24 and there will be additional portable walls installed yet on the tip-floor to help staff organize and load more efficiently.
