UPDATED COST: County admin building estimated at $3.77 million

To construct a new administration building for Jasper County, BBS Architects Engineers say it may cost $3.77 million — about $130,000 more than anticipated.

Matt Cole, an architect and partner of BBS, provided this recent update to the Jasper County Board of Supervisors during its Feb. 23 meeting. Originally, the project — whose financing will be put to a taxpayer vote March 2 — was estimated to cost about $3.64 million.

But that was before the driver’s license/motor vehicle departments were included in a built-on addition to the building, which had been formerly occupied by the NewCare Health Services clinic, 315 W. Third St. N. Cole said BBS worked through some layouts with county employees and have updated cost estimates.

Compared to their current space, the driver’s license/motor vehicle departments and treasurer’s office will have multiple access points and a much larger waiting area. Within the new addition, Cole said there will be a testing area for driver’s licenses and supply/storage spaces.

If more than 60 percent of the votes are in favor of the upcoming $3.6 million bond referendum to finance the project, the county says because of its low debt the bond can be passed without raising the debt service levy. Furthermore, the county says it will be debt free within six years.

About 13 departments will operate in the new administration building:

• treasurer’s office

• driver’s license/motor vehicle

• community development

• environmental health, CICS (MH/DS)

• veterans affairs

• human resources

• public health

• economic development

• genealogy

• department of human services

• department of correctional services

• juvenile correctional services

BBS still recommends the county retain 5 percent of the initial construction costs for contingency purposes. Cole told supervisors they “can’t anticipate every single thing that’s going to come up or be found” during the construction and renovation process, which is why it’s important to have that additional funding available.

Jasper County also asked BBS to estimate what it would cost to install furniture systems for the offices and departments operating inside the new administration building. BBS says the cost range would be $58,000-$63,000 for the county departments’ standard office furniture: desks, tables, chairs, etc.

Other remaining state departments — correctional services, department of human services, etc. — would need $83,000-$90,000. Altogether, about $141,000-$153,000 would be spent on new furniture at the admin building, based on BBS’ discussions with a vendor.

Printers and other kinds of technology will be moved to the new space, rather than purchased separately.

Doug Cupples, chair of the Jasper County Board of Supervisors, wanted to know what the timeline would be for employees to move in to the new space.

Cole said, “I’ve said before and I would stick to it that you’re probably a year before you’re moving into the building. That allows for renovation of the existing building, the new construction. You got site work to do. Installation of geothermal. Paving work to do … Delivery and set up of furniture.

“So I would really hesitate to suggest that it could be less than a year’s duration.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com