Bartholomew County officials are weighing options after learning the price for its planned new county highway garage could balloon as high as $9.4 million.
Last fall, county officials had authorized borrowing up to $6 million for the facility, to be located on an 11.25-acre farm site off East 25th Street near Petersville.
Project designer DLZ Indiana, Inc., and David Doup, Taylor Bros. Construction which is overseeing the project, provided the cost update. The figures were presented Monday to the Bartholomew County Council in a work session.
Commissioner Carl Lienhoop said DLZ and Doup have been working with the county to lower the construction costs wherever feasible.
As part of those measures, a steel building structure will be used for the shop and office, while pole barns will be erected for storing trucks and larger equipment, Lienhoop said. Barns holding trucks will have one open side and no cement floor, the commissioner said.
One expensive problem was caused by the farm land’s topography, which includes a large hump in a key area for the facility, the commissioner said.
“We’re going to have to move some of our structures on the other side of a drainage ditch,” Lienhoop said.
Over the past few weeks, cost-cutting efforts have lowered some costs for the physical construction back down to $6 million, Lienhoop said.
But soft costs that include architectural, engineering, financing and legal fees usually amount to about 28 percent of hard costs, Lienhoop said.
Even with some soft costs trimmed, it now appears the total cost for the highway garage will still be about $7.5 million, Lienhoop said
“But we think we’ll have the money to make this thing fly,” Lienhoop told the council on Monday.
He was referring to $1.5 million obtained through income tax revenue that was set aside a year ago. While the original intent was to use that money to reimburse the county for bonding expenses, Lienhoop said it appears to be just enough to pay for those soft construction costs.
Council council member Mark Gorbett reminded the council that the city of Columbus is still interested in purchasing the property near State Street and Gladstone Avenue where the current highway garage stands.
If that sale is completed, the county would have money to help defray some costs, as well as to build a $600,000 salt barn near Petersville, Lienhoop said.
Although bids are scheduled to be opened on April 22, Bartholomew County Commissioner Chairman Rick Flohr said DLZ still needs about 10 more weeks to complete the final plans.
Groundbreaking is set for mid-June, while completion is anticipated one year later, DLZ engineer Charlie Day said.
Last fall, the county agreed to pay DLZ $315,000 for architectural services, and $237,000 to Taylor Bros. for construction management services for the project.
But by accepting the managerial role, Taylor Bros. won’t be allowed to bid on the project themselves. Instead, their responsibilities include breaking down the construction of the highway garage into smaller projects that can be completed by several smaller firms, and overseeing completion.
“We think we’ll get more competitive bids by doing that, as well as be able to hire more local firms,” said county commissioner Larry Kleinhenz, who explained a similar process was successfully used in construction of the Mill Race Center and the Bartholomew County Landfill.
