A multi-million dollar renovations/update project at the Miami County Courthouse and Safety Building is quickly wrapping up.
The county commissioners met Jan. 28 with representatives of project consultants Garman-Miller and contractors to review final work being done.
The project started in late 2014 was done after business hours and included HVAC, plumbing and other work in the 1800s Courthouse and early 1970s Safety Building. The price was estimated at around $6 million but a final cost following change orders was not yet available.
As of late last week all major construction was complete and 95 percent of project “punch list” items done, said Chris Monnin of Garman-Miller. A project meeting has been held every Tuesday with the final one scheduled Feb.9.
“We felt it was a very successful project, updating virtually the entire mechanical system at night,” Monnin said. “We think everybody did a nice job.”
The commissioners said they heard very few complaints, considering the size and scope of the project.
“We have heard very positive comments on how it was handled. This was a major project,” said Commission President Richard Cultice.
Commissioner Jack Evans said in meeting the same day as the discussion that elected officials “were very happy with how it went.” An exception was cold air in the Courthouse, the commissioners said.
Commissioner John “Bud” O’Brien said county staff under Chris Johnson, operations and facilities director, did a great job keeping employees informed. Their responsiveness was appreciated, he said. “For the size of this project, the complaints were minimal,” he said.
O’Brien also thanked the commission’s representative in project meetings, Leigh Williams, for her efforts. Williams, he said, “doesn’t leave any ‘I’ not dotted or ‘t’ not crossed.”
Security work initially proposed for inclusion in the project will be done next, once the county IT Department completes preparation work.
In other business last week, the commission:
- Approved a contract with William Ginn, M.D., to provide medical services for juveniles at the David L. Brown Youth Center for $8,400 a year in 2016 and 2017. O’Brien said a legal opinion was requested to make sure there was not a conflict with Ginn handling the contract in addition to his responsibilities as the county’s elected coroner. He said the county prosecutor’s office said there was not a conflict.
- Approved purchase of an Ethernet processor for the SCADA system at the sanitary engineering department for up to $3,793. The existing system stopped working properly Jan. 11, causing an emergency for the department because the system offers real time visuals of nine lift stations across the county, alerts the department immediately of any issues with lift stations and is used to control the lift station functions and record needed operations data.
- Appointed Vickie Bowman of Laura as the county apiarist for 2016. They approved up to $2,000 in appropriations for the job including $15 per hour salary and 42 cents per mile.
