Supervisors approve $159K bid to relocate recorder’s office

Supervisors reluctantly approved a $159,000 bid to relocate and reconstruct the county recorder’s office into the vacant driver’s license/motor vehicle department when the latter eventually moves into the new administration building. Officials only received one bid, and they agreed the price was high. They could have re-bid.

However, the memory of a past re-bidding for the concrete in the courthouse sidewalks project was still fresh on the county’s mind. In an attempt to get to a lower bid, the county waited about six months to re-bid for concrete, only to end up with even higher offers from contractors.

Jasper County Supervisor Brandon Talsma worried the same situation might occur with the recorder’s office bid, acknowledging he was not a fan of the costs. Even more so when county maintenance director Adam Sparks noted carpet and furniture purchases would only add on more expenses to the project.

Inevitably, the board of supervisors on June 21 voted 2-1 to approve the bid from the Johnston-based GTG Construction. The contractor would start Oct. 1.

The dissenting vote came from Jasper County Supervisor Doug Cupples, who believed the total costs of the project to be too expensive. The original estimate of the project was $139,000 with work done to the ceilings. Without the ceilings labor, the project was about $105,000. Either way, the bid was higher.

Kaela Shoemaker, an architect with BBS Architects Engineers, agreed as much. Sparks said he had budgeted $150,000 at most for the project. Not included in the bid package is the tear out work, which will be conducted by the county. It was also the county’s job to get carpet bids and buy furniture.

Re-bidding the project would be risky, and the county had already taken a risk before. Shoemaker said she is unsure what bidding would look like in winter.

“I don’t know if you’re going to see a lower price,” Shoemaker told supervisors after the 2 p.m. bid opening. “If you rebid it you might get another bidder. But the price is likely to stay kind of high just (because) there’s not a projection of inflation going down.”

Cupples asked if there was any way the county maintenance team could do the work instead. Sparks believes they could “possibly” remodel the new office, but they do not have all the tools to do everything that needs done. It would require the county to purchase tools that may or may not be used ever again, he said.

Maintenance could hire subcontractors, but Sparks said the county has no idea if that number will come in higher or lower than that. Other issues that keep happening with bidding projects is the absence of contractors during pre-bid meetings. Sparks said no one shows up to the pre-bid meetings.

“So when people bid they’re bidding blind,” Sparks said. “They’re bidding off of written information in a booklet. Nobody comes to see the projects. Knowing how bidding goes, if you don’t come look at a project you’re always going to throw numbers, to me, higher than they need to be.”

Why? Because Sparks said contractors don’t want to “get burnt.” But showing up and realizing the job isn’t as bad as it seems on paper, all of a sudden the price might go down. It might have helped the county in this regard.

A representative of GTG Construction said the company would have attended the pre-bid meeting but the architects reached out to the contractor after the meeting had already taken place.

Jasper County Supervisor Denny Carpenter at first said he had no clue what to think but eventually relented that the project would only get more expensive the longer the county waits. Talsma agreed but asked if the county should wait another 18 months to two years before bidding again or bite the bullet now.

Sparks said, “To be honest, if you’re going to wait, you are going to have to wait that long to see anything. We tried to wait for six months, right? On the concrete? And that didn’t pan out at all. It skyrocketed even higher. So if you are going to wait, honestly you’re going to have to wait an extended amount of time.”

Jasper County Recorder Denise Allan was asked her thoughts. She and her staff would love to move. Two months ago Allan said the move would increase accessibility to her office and benefit people who have difficult mobility. In the end, Allan said she respects what the supervisors decide.

Cupples understands the move would be beneficial, but the recorder’s office has been in its current space for a century and there is an elevator for public use. The current office, he added, is adequate and does serve a purpose. Ultimately the cost was just too high for Cupples.

“I’m sorry but I can’t make that call right now,” Cupples said. “If it was we have to, it’s a bad spot — but that’s not the case. We’re attempting to do something to make it easier for the public to come in to and what not. But the public also pays the bill for it.”

Talsma said he’s not far from Cupples’ point of view.

“I would lean towards ‘yes,’” Talsma said. “It’s $24,000 over budget, but I do believe that unfortunately this is where we’re living at right now … And I’m not 100 percent convinced that even if we wait 18 months to two years the costs are going to be coming down that much.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext 6560 or at cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com