KUGLER TOWNSHIP— A new St. Louis County Public Works facility should be open and operating here by this time next year, assuming construction proceeds as currently planned.
The new facility, to be located about 200 feet north and east of the intersection of Hwy. 135 and County Rd. 26, is now expected to cost approximately $11 million to build, although county officials acknowledge it’s a moving target during a period of material shortages and inflation. It is one of three new public works facilities the county is currently planning to build at a total cost of about $33 million. Facilities in Culver Township and near the Whiteface Reservoir are also in the works.
The county board approved a bid from Angora-based KGM earlier this month for the site work and bituminous associated with the project. According to Brian Boder, the county’s deputy public works director for maintenance, the board should have the remaining bid packages, which will include concrete and metal work, mechanical, plumbing, and electric, ready for approval by the first week of July.
Site work is scheduled to get underway Aug. 1, with the foundation work set for mid-September. The building’s precast walls and roof are scheduled to arrive Oct. 15 and will take a week to assemble. Boder said the building should be enclosed and ready for interior work by Nov. 1. Interior work will be completed over the winter, with a scheduled completion set for late May or early June.
Not surprisingly, the bids for the work have been coming in well above estimates. Last fall, county officials had put the estimates for construction of each of the new county facilities at approximately $8 million apiece, but those estimates have jumped substantially. “We’re seeing the same inflation the general public is seeing,” said Boder. “It’s been about a 20 percent increase in what we had expected.”
Transfer of existing facility
With work on the new public works garage now scheduled to get underway soon, Boder said he expects that city and county officials will soon begin discussions about the city’s possible acquisition of the county facility. Most of the buildings at the current county facility, located just off Marina Drive, on the city’s west end, were built in the 1990s and appear to be in good repair. Between the main office and repair facility, the cold storage warehouse and a 10,000 square-foot salt dome, the facility would provide the city with over 19,000 square-feet of indoor space, including 4,700 square-feet of heated space in the main office and repair garage.
Currently, the city has approximately 4,080 square-feet of heated space for its fire and ambulance service and public works combined. The city also has approximately 5,500 square-feet of cold storage in two dilapidated metal pole buildings, both of which were built in the first half of the 1980s.
City and county officials have been talking informally about a possible acquisition of the county facility, which could allow the city to consolidate all of its public works and emergency operations in one facility with much greater available space. It would also open up the possibility of refurbishing the current fire and ambulance hall to create city offices, which could replace the existing 1930s-vintage city hall.
City officials haven’t made any such decisions at this point. And while the acquisition of the facility could be achieved for far less than the cost of new construction, the era of the county giving buildings away has largely disappeared. County Commissioner Paul McDonald said the city’s acquisition of the old buildings would have to be on similar terms as the city of Cook’s purchase of county facilities after the construction of a new county garage and various offices on County Rd. 115, just north of Cook. That would entail a purchase for the current appraised value or estimated market value by the county assessor.
The property’s EMV is currently set at $392,600. While that’s a hefty sum for the city, it’s a tiny fraction of the cost to build such facilities new.
City officials note that the idea is still speculative at this point, but the facility would fit well with the city’s needs. “We need the space and we could service our own vehicles. We could possibly use it for our emergency services as well,” said Tower Mayor Dave Setterberg. “Once we see what we could be getting and what would be available, we can better understand the options.”
Setterberg said he’s discussed the possible acquisition with McDonald, but has been waiting for progress on the new county facility before beginning serious talks. With things moving forward, Setterberg said it will be time to reach out again. “We need to keep the city at the front of the line,” he said.