County moves forward with facilities assessment

Board of Supervisors
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     After hearing from two different engineering companies (Shive-Hattery and Martin Gardner) at the Jones County Supervisors meeting last week, during the March 27 meeting, the board awarded the facilities assessment bid to the lowest bid to Shive-Hattery for $15,000. (Martin Gardner’s bid came in at $24,900.)

     The board voted 4-1, with Supervisor Wayne Manternach opposed. Manternach said he felt Martin Gardner benefitted with their historical preservation experience, and with a member of their team having experience with the state’s historical office. “That’s a huge benefit that Shive-Hattery can’t match,” he added.

     The assessment will include not only the courthouse, but also the county’s Broadway Place Annex facility.

     “I feel either firm would do a find job,” offered County Auditor Janine Sulzner. “But it seems Martin Gardner has county facility experience.”

     Both firms worked with two different county departments/agencies. Shive-Hattery worked with the Conservation Department in the past, and Martin Gardener worked on the new Advancement Services building.

     With a $10,000 price difference, Supervisors Ned Rohwedder and Jon Zirkelbach felt it was a sizable difference.

     “I feel Shive-Hattery can provide all of the services we need,” said Rohwedder.

     Chris Nelson with Shive-Hattery explained the reason perhaps why their bid was $10,000 lower than Martin Gardner is because they offer all of the assessment services in-house versus sub-contracting those out.

In other county business:

     • The board approved the updated Safety Policy for Secondary Roads. The County Engineer Derek Snead updated the policy to allow his employees to build up a PPE (personal protective equipment) allowance.

     • The board set a bidding letting for Tuesday, April 17 at 10 a.m. for sealed bids for 1-inch contract rock.

     Snead said there will be less tonnage placed on roads this year (75,000 tons) when compared to the last two years (90,000 tons). However he expects rock prices to go up.

     Supervisor Jon Zirkelbach asked Snead whether Secondary Roads would be bale to make that tonnage up with spot rock.

     “We’re transitioning to be able to do a lot of spot rock ourselves,” Snead said.

     • The board approved the renewal of a contract with Kam Line Highway Markings for pavement markings this spring throughout the county and in the cities of Monticello and Anamosa. The contract was in the amount of $59,500. Snead said Kam Line was agreeable to renewing the contract at the same price from the previous year.

     “If we had done to bid, the prices would have increased,” he said. “So we have the opportunity to save a bit of money.”

     Snead shared that some new safety data is slowly coming out that if the pavement marking lines were increased from 4.5 to 6 inches, you’ll see a reduction in crash occurrences. While some counties are changing their markings, the data isn’t necessarily geared toward rural roads.

     “You’ll see a drastic increase in the prices, too,” he said of the increase in line thickness. “Typically our crashes are not because you can’t see the center line. We just don’t have the volume of crashes.”

     • It was the consensus of the board to not allow signage to the Broadway Place Annex building prohibiting weapons on the property. The board was previously approached by HACAP with the request to add signage.

     • The board approved a grant application with ECICOG for the Derelict Building Program for county-owned property at 311 W. Main St. in Wyoming (former Dirks oil station).

     The board also approved a contract with Environmental Management Service of Iowa, Inc. to abate asbestos. The contract was for $3,800.

 

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