JACKSON -- The Resource Center Citizens Committee recapped the Facility Analysis and Space Needs Analysis provided by Wold Architects and Engineers Thursday.
Three Wold employees and two county commissioners attended in order to answer questions.
Wold architect Nick Marcucci estimated that simply bringing both buildings up to code would cost more than $3.7 million. Should any remodeling costing more than $50,000 be done, the state can demand the building be brought up to code. Some of the $3.7 million would likely be absorbed by remodeling costs, however.
"If this building is in such bad condition, how come the county board bought it?" asked Don Steen, committee member.
Mentioning the boilers, now used to heat two other county buildings in addition to the Resource Center, committee member Jim Westensee said he thought they got their $100,000 dollars' worth out of it.
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"We also got $120,000 worth of land," noted County Coordinator Jan Fransen.
To form Wold's initial analyses, company members met with county departments to determine space needs, assessed the available resources, and worked with the original Jackson City/County Facilities Study Committee to determine how best to meet space needs.
Then, Wold produced cost-estimates for five different options for rebuilding or renovating the Resource Center.
- Option one, a new two- or three-story building was estimated at $8.465 million.
This option included space for Jackson County Human Services, the Senior Center and the library as well as the renting agencies currently taking up space in the Resource Center.
Because of the City of Jackson's involvement in this option, it would pay for one-third of the cost. If the city decided not to participate in the project, the building would be scaled down to omit its areas.
In this plan, one of the two boilers, dating from 1994, will continue being used for the new building, but the other, older boiler will be replaced. Those two boilers would continue to be used to heat the county courthouse, as well as its law enforcement center.
- Option two, demolishing the 1962 building and renovating the 1938 building was estimated to cost $7.386 million.
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- Option three, demolishing the 1938 building and renovating the 1962 building was estimated to cost $7.085 million. A related option three-A that included demolishing the shop area of the 1962 building considered unusable space was estimated to cost $7.235 million.
- Option four, the renovation of both existing buildings, was estimated to cost $9.737 million.
- Option five, a minimum renovation of both buildings to a minimum level, was estimated to cost $8.0275 million.
All costs are estimated in 2005 dollars, and prices have risen since then somewhere between 6 to 12 percent in the volatile construction market.
The committee will meet again from 5 to 7 p.m. March 27 to look at the options provided by Wold, bring further possibilities to the table and discuss the consequences of all the possibilities presented.
The committee could vote on a recommendation sometime after the March 27 meeting.
