The Sherburne County Board may have a new option for the property the county owns on Jackson Street in Elk River.

 

At a workshop last month, Administrator Steve Taylor said the building could potentially need about $700,000 in improvements. The building houses 14 public work staff, including the survey crew and equipment.

 

The property is currently assessed at about $550,000, and members of the board were reluctant to sink more money into a building that may not be worth the effort.

 

With the Government Center expansion project underway, the board talked about possibly relocating the staff to the Government Center. Other options included moving them to the maintenance facility in Becker, construction of a new building or purchasing and remodeling an existing building.

 

During another workshop Tuesday, Public Works Director Andrew Witter proposed another option - remodeling the Jackson site for the Sherburne Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and Tri-CAP. 

 

The county had appropriated space for both organizations in the Government Center once the expansion and remodel were completed.

 

Witter’s concept would bring the public works staff into space previously allocated for SWCD and give SWCD part of the existing office space at Jackson Street. Since that site also has garage bays for larger vehicles, Tri-CAP, which provides bus services for the county, would have a site for its fleet.

 

He said he has concerns about the decentralization of the public works department with the engineering and survey crew separated from the rest of the department staff, even if the improvements were made.

 

Sometimes customers at the Government Center have questions about engineering, right of way or property acquisitions and have to be sent to Jackson Street for answers.

 

Having two sites is also inefficient and costly. Witter said he took a tally during the week of April 17.

 

“We had 18 trips from employees from Jackson Street to the Government Center, which cost $550 in staff time,” he said. “If you extrapolate that throughout the year and add mileage, you’re talking about $30,000 in lost efficiency and lost staff time.”

 

He said there is also duplicate office equipment to maintain, plus duplicate office supplies. And the engineering staff Jackson Street site doesn’t have the capability to print large scale plots and aerial photographs.

 

“They have to contact someone here, have it printed and then pick it up,” he said.

 

Witter said the Jackson Street site was built in 1974 and upgraded in 1989.            

 

“The north addition was primarily garage space with a couple of office spaces, which is exactly what Tri-CAP needs,” he said. “The orignal area is more office space with some minor garage space, which functions a little better for SWCD. Both these organizations are critical to our communities and assist the public in their respective ways.”

 

Tuesday’s discussion was part of a workshop where no decisions could be made. However, by consensus, members of the board directed Witter to continue talking with Tri-CAP and SWCD about their needs, while getting some more solid numbers on remodeling work.