(Arnolds Park)– Six options and cost estimates for the Dickinson county courthouse project were presented at another public meeting Thursday evening in Arnolds Park.
Estimated cost of construction with each option is roughly 10 million dollars. All six proposals are roughly 55-thousand square feet in size. With soft-costs figured in, the total estimated cost ranges from 12.8 million to 15 million dollars. Options vary from rennovating the newer additions, along with new construction. Other options include tearing all the existing structures down. One option has the engineer and planning and zoning departments remaining in their current building; the others include them in a new courthouse. A couple options incorporate elements of the 1891 building.
The estimated cost of the options is more than double what had been proposed in previous bond issues. Supervisor Chair David Gottsche says not enough was figured in for soft costs in the earlier proposals. The soft costs are much higher in proposals that would require the relocation of officers and prisoners while construction is under way. A couple of options would allow workers and prisoners to stay in the current facility while the work is underway. All of the options include construction of a new jail, which is also different from previous bond issues.
All of the options, except one, have the new facility being built on the existing site, or slightly west of that. Another option is to build a new courthouse in the area of Ferguson’s sod farm on Highway 71 south in Spirit Lake. Oberlander estimates the cost of that at 13 million dollars…including land acquisition.
