NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Board of County Commissioners is letting two of its members take a closer look at the courthouse interior projects on the lower floors in an effort to control costs for a project that was originally budgeted at $1.2 million. The lone bidder on the project, Ward Davis Builders, bid $2.126 million. There is a clear majority in favor of the work on the DA's area.
That portion of the project would take space on the 5th floor currently used for storage in an area that was the courthouse's original jail area and renovate for office space and a conference room to allow for all of the DA's staff to be on the same floor. The rest of the project is still going to get a closer look.
"What we could do is ask a couple of commissioners to kind of committee this a little bit?" said chair Daniel Friesen.
The consensus was to allow commissioner Ron Hirst and commissioner Don Bogner to take a closer look at the details with County Administrator Randy Partington and Harlen Depew and come back with a different scope of work in a few weeks. Once the overall scope is decided, Ward Davis said it would still take time to get done.
"I would ask for in the neighborhood of 12 months," Davis said. "Could we do it in nine? Perhaps. I'd like a few months to get the stuff planned, get the submittals and get stuff bought. It's kind of a little complicated just to start next month or something, I've got other projects I've got to get done. It wouldn't be good to start a project until I can really hit it hard."
The courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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