Concrete plans made with justice center

The Carlton County Board of Commissioners continued to advance the combined justice center project, voting on the first construction contract and finalizing the administrative contracts during their meeting Tuesday morning.

The board awarded Taracon Precast of Hawley, Minnesota a $5,230,705 bid to furnish the needed precast concrete for construction of the new justice center complex. The bid came in $169,295 below engineering estimates.

“I will make the motion to proceed,” announced longtime commissioner Dick Brenner, “now that we have a plan.”

Earlier in the meeting final contracts were approved for Klein McCarthy Architects, which has been responsible for the architectural and engineering of the project, and Adolfson & Peterson Construction as construction manager. Klein McCarthy Architects has been involved for more than a year with creating the plan for the complex. Adolfson & Peterson Construction was hired by the board within the last few months to represent Carlton County’s interests during construction.

Construction of the justice center is scheduled for a two-year window of activity, finishing work in late 2024. So far it is estimated that the complex will cost more than $70 million.

The building is estimated at 117,526 square feet. The two-story complex will have three elevators: one for the public, one for the court system, and one for movement of the jail population.

The jail portion is the most costly, at about $31 million, followed by the courtroom area at approximately $14 million; sheriff’s office, more than $6 million; public lobby and shared services, about $3 million; central utility and support, roughly $3 million; garage, about $1.4 million; and the construction of a 1-megawatt solar farm to pay for long-term power costs at $1.5 million.

“Building such a complex has many issues to resolve,” said board chair Gary Peterson during a phone call. “By 10 a.m. this morning I have already had two in-person meetings on the project and have another meeting scheduled for 2 p.m. Just when you think you have a handle on things, another problem to work through pops up.”

Commissioners hope voters will approve a half-percent sales tax in the November election to cover most of the project costs, rather than paying through increased property taxes. Additionally, Carlton County has asked for $22 million in state bonding dollars this legislative session.

Commissioner Mark Thell said in a phone interview that a delegation from Carlton County appeared at a hearing for the bonding dollars. Commissioners Marv Bodie, Thell and Peterson attended, along with jail administrator Paul Coughlin. Coughlin carried the presentation and the question-answer period. Thell said the bonding committee administrator commented that she thought the Carlton County proposal was filled with good information and well-presented, one of the best she has heard in this cycle.

There were questions from the board whether construction firms that provide the materials were waived from paying the state sales tax. The bid award to Taracon Precast of more than $5 million, for example, would have a possible added $400,000 sales tax bill to pay up front.

Normally, government entities do not have to pay sales tax on their purchases. Yet, in this instance, the precast concrete supplier provides the material to the construction contractor, an in-between third party.

If it were reimbursable from the state, it would have to be paid with borrowed money up front. On a large project such as this one, a sizable extra cost would be added using borrowed money and waiting for the State of Minnesota to pay those tax funds back to the county. The solution to this issue has to be determined in St. Paul.

Voting machines ordered

The county board approved $402,880 for purchasing new voting machines from a firm in Omaha, Nebraska. Auditor/Treasurer Kevin DeVriendt said that about half of the cost is covered by four grant sources and the rest is the county’s share.

DeVriendt explained that the voting machines now in use will soon be obsolete and cannot be upgraded easily. They are heavy to move. The new machines are much lighter, leave a paper trail for votes counted at the polling stations and tabulated at the courthouse, eliminate confusion during voting, are able to handle handicapped voters, and can be updated in the future.

He said that those producing the new generation of voting machines have been carefully vetted by federal and state governments.

The old machines have little value and likely will be traded in or recycled at a cost of $50.