(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors Thursday received assurrances that leaks and other deficiencies in the first phase of the new courthouse will be addressed.
Mike McCline, representing McHan Construction, the General Contractor on the project, says they’re actively researching the leaks and have identified several potential problem areas…including a door frame that wasn’t properly caulked and a problem with water not draining from some mechanical louvres. He says they hope to have the issue addressed within another week or so.
Supervisor Mardi Allen again expressed her frustration over the various problems, saying her list of concerns has grown to three pages. In addition to the leaks, they include things such as sewer back-ups and wiring problems.
McCline added construction crews are working on another project McHan is involved with in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He says they’ll return to Spirit Lake to start the second phase of the courthouse once the Aberdeen project is complete and structural steel arrives here. That isn’t expected to happen until sometime in mid to late-September. Even then, McCline says they still intend to keep the project on a timeline for final completion and a grand opening November 7th, 2007.
On another note McCline described the problems currently being experienced as “shakeout” that’s fairly typical for projects of this magnitude. He added he hopes the public still appreciates everyone that’s been involved in the process. He praised the supervisors for their tenacity in seeing the project through and for taking an active role in it. McCline added Dickinson county taxpayers can rest assurred the new courthouse is state-of-the-art and once completed it should be functional for many generations to come.
