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Wednesday, February 1, 2006
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Building needs addressed Long-range proposals include courthouse additions By MONICA LUNDQUIST Cass County Correspondent WALKER - The Cass County Board needs to adopt a long-range building action plan this year, Administrator Robert Yochum told the board during the annual planning retreat Friday.
Commissioners directed Yochum to select a core group of department heads who have expansion needs and court system representatives to develop a plan by the March 21 regular board meeting.
Immediate building needs the 2006 budget and reserve funds likely can cover, Yochum said, include a 24-foot-by-40-foot building maintenance supplies storage structure, to be located at the south end of the parking lot across the street from the courthouse, and a roof over the existing jail outdoor recreation area. The covered area will be used as an inmate holding space for people brought to court here from other jails.
The storage building is estimated to cost $40,000.
If Cass' share of the Crow Wing County Jail does not exceed estimates, Yochum said there should be enough money in Cass' jail fund to pay the $165,000 he expects it will cost to put a roof over the Cass jail outdoor recreation area.
The outdoor recreation area has been a problem since Cass' jail was built about 20 years ago, Yochum said, with water leaking into the building below it.
Also revived for consideration this year would be installing a 21-stall parking lot on the courthouse front lawn at an estimated $151,362 cost.
The county has begun the bid process to replace the land department office in Backus this year. Land Department-generated funds are expected to cover costs for that.
The more major long-range building plan centers around a proposal Gary Otterstad of CAM, a Brainerd construction management firm, presented to the board last fall. He discussed the plan in more detail Friday.
It contains three building additions to the courthouse complex. The first would be a two-story court system addition above the present jail and law enforcement center.
Currently, Cass has two courtrooms. The next time the Legislature approves more judges in the state, the county is expected to receive a third judge, who would have no courtroom or chambers.
The original courthouse, built about 1905, provides little security for victims, witnesses, the accused or families when waiting for court or coming into the courtrooms, Yochum said. Everyone stands in one hallway. Jury rooms are cramped.
County Attorney Earl Maus said one of his assistants works in a small south-facing office with large windows, which gets a heat reflection from an adjacent roof. There has been an air conditioner running all winter in that office to keep the heat at a tolerable level, he said.
Otterstad told the board the ideal time to add floors above the jail and law enforcement center would be when Crow Wing County opens the jail there in 2007, because inmates currently housed in the Cass jail could be moved to Crow Wing during Cass' construction.
Otherwise, Cass might have to find inmate space in multiple other county jails during construction, complicating the major disruption during construction.
Estimated cost for the court complex addition is $3,519,000. Yochum told the board the county could maintain about the same debt level it has been carrying and do this project.
A second construction phase might be a four-story office building behind the courthouse annex where a parking lot currently is located.
Otterstad envisions the first floor as a building mechanical center, the second as offices and/or a county board room, the third for a dispatch center and office, with the fourth floor undedicated at this time.
To build both the four-story office building and two stories above the jail as a combined project at the same time could save the county $300,000, Otterstad estimated.
Commissioner Jim Demgen said he favors doing both at the same time to save overall costs.
Estimated cost for the four-story office building alone is $6,656,000. Yochum told the board the county's debt repayment costs would increase significantly to cover both projects at once.
"How much do you want to put on the taxpayers?" Commissioner Jim Dowson asked. Commissioner Jeff Peterson said he favors building for what is necessary, not just what the board might want.
A third building phase being suggested would be a four-story, 100-bed jail toward the front courthouse lawn from the existing jail. That structure is estimated to cost $6,300,000, with another $3,500,000 required to connect to the existing jail and remodel that for a total cost of $9,800,000.
Current projections call for designing the new jail building in 2013 and constructing in 2014. Cass would have to negotiate an extension on use of the Crow Wing County jail wing beyond 2013 to do this.
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