Demolition plans continue for former county care facility

The Jasper County Board of Supervisors approved moving forward with the demolition process of the Jasper County Care Facility Tuesday.

Supervisor Joe Brock said asbestos has been removed from the property, 5245 Liberty Ave., and the next step is to work on a bid packet.

“I checked into the engineering for the project and didn’t have much luck finding a demolition engineer, but I talked to Russ (county engineer) and he graciously offered to help get the bids out and help guide us,” Brock said.

The county is hoping to recycle the bricks that make up the property. Brock said it is much cheaper to recycle with 70 to 90 percent of the bricks in condition to be reused.

“I’ve had one local contractor who is interested in the recycling. He has done one building, Lincoln School in Pella, he recycled that,” Supervisor Denny Carpenter said.

Brock said he has also had several contractors contact him about the recycling of the bricks and that he anticipates a lot of interest in the project. County Engineer Russ Stutt was approved to begin working on a bid packet for the demolition process including any recycling for contractors.

In other business, an updated security system was approved for the engineer’s office, adding five cameras to the property. A camera will be placed on all four sides of the building as well as one mounted on the tower in the middle of the lot to cover the whole yard. The cameras will be provided and installed by SCI, Inc., which was also approved for the new cameras in the courthouse.

Two new members will join the County Commissioners of Veterans Affairs increasing the number from three to five. The board approved the additions which will be filled at a later date. Current commissioner Randy Wagner said that they have talked in the past about increasing to two commissioners and they think the board should look outside of the Newton area to fill the positions.

“All of the smaller towns, we’d like to see more folks come in from other areas. Right now we have three from Newton,” Wagner said.

Commissioner John Billingsley said that it would also be nice to have younger members who were active in more recent conflicts.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com