The Sherburne County Board of Commissioners took the next step in the process of expanding the Government Center Tuesday by approving a schematic design contract with BWBR Architects totalling $1.2 million.

 

Last month, the board approved moving ahead with preparing plans for the earthwork that needs to be done before the building can be started. 

 

Doug Wild of BWBR said since the last board meeting, he and staff have met with county department heads to review the actual space needs for each department. 

 

“We have sign-offs with all the departments with the exception of Health & Human Services (HHS). We’ve been struggling to find them enough space,” he said. “We think we have a solution. We put it in front of them, but we just haven’t had a chance to circle back.”

 

Administrator Steve Taylor went into more detail about that space. 

 

“Essentially, we ran into expansion issues for their 10-year growth pattern,” he said. “We found that we were about 5,000 square feet short for HHS over a 10-year period.”

 

Originally, the 10th Judicial District was planning to locate adjacent to HHS, said Taylor, which caused the space issue. But he said in a conversation with 10th Judicial Court Administrator Mike Moriarty, it appears they are considering having a smaller presence in the county.

 

“For me this is a win-win situation,” he said. “HHS has the ability to grow over a 10-year period of time and we have 2,000 to 2,500 sq. ft. available that HHS will not use that will be available for a department or two of the 10th Judicial.”

 

Wild said the plans for that space and all the space will be part of the schematic design, which will be completed in late July. He said at that time, the bids will be in for the earthwork as will a revised cost estimate for the entire project, which now stands at about $63.5 million.

 

“We’ll have some confirmed costs for some of the work and estimated costs for the remainder of the work. At that time you’ll have the chance to approve the project,” he said.

 

That information will be available at the Aug. 2 board meeting.

 

Commissioner Felix Schmiesing said the county has prepared for the project by saving money in its building fund and working to pay off existing debt to eliminate the need to increase the levy.

 

“The most important thing to me as we work through this process is that it fits into our cash flow. We are able to achieve this building - to fill the needs of the county and the courts ,and we’re able to do it without going to our taxpayers and saying we need to increase your levy significantly,” he said. 

 

“As I watch this play out, I’m supporting it at this point. But that’s the most important thing to me - if we make the decision to go with it, that we have done so in a fiscally responsible manner.”