(Spirit Lake)– Construction of Dickinson county’s new courthouse came a step closer to reality Tuesday afternoon.
The board of supervisors held a bidletting on the project at 2:30 p.m. Bids were received from four construction firms. All came in well below the 13.2 million dollar mark that was targeted for the bids.
The apparent low bid of 11,546,000-dollars was submitted by McHan Construction of Sioux City.
Other bids included Christensen Brothers of Estherville at 11,585,000-dollars; L L Builders of Sioux City at 12,224,000-dollars; and Joseph Company of Austin, Minnesota at 12,338,000-dollars.
Six deductible alternates were included in the event the bids came in higher than expected. They include deletion of a lawn irrigation system; asphalt instead of rubber shingles; deleting the tower replica; linoleum instead of terrazo floors; leaving out operable partitions and tracks; and deleting millwork from a courtroom.
Based on how the bids came in, Al Oberlander of RDG, the chief architect on the project, says he’ll recommend the supervisors keep those alternates in the project.
The board of supervisors will award a bid at their meeting this coming Tuesday (August 3rd). Once that’s done, Oberlander says work could soon be getting underway.
Dickinson county voters approved a 14.9 million dollar bond issue for the project September 30th, 2003. While the bids came in well below that, they do not include things such as furnishings and sales tax, which will bring the total closer to the 14.9 million once the project is completed two years from now.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held August 12th.
