WASHINGTON

In their March 5 meeting, the Washington County Supervisors received a prebid budget for remodeling buildups 2 and 3 at Orchard Hill for county administrative offices. According to supervisor Marcus Fedler, the estimate is only $17,000 over the maximum $3.4 million set by the board last year for the project. An original design plan and estimate from Carl A. Nelson Company, which covered all aspects of the project, would use American Recovery Plan Act funds, approximately $6 million, leading to revisions by the board. The project includes remodeling of the county courthouse as well as the ones at Orchard Hill.

The current plan, from Encite in Washington, contains a number of alternates that could be added later, and also deleted the canopy for building 2, to be used for the county Public Health Department, that would have permitted drive-up vaccinations. The canopy would have protected the drive area, permitting individuals to lower a car window for the vaccination. Currently, Public Health is in leased facilities in the former downtown Federation Bank Building in Washington.

In other business, the board approved the resolution and letter of support for the 2023-2024 Bridge Investment Program (BIP) grant project involving Buchanan, Cedar, Hamilton, Jones, Monroe and Washington counties in a cost-sharing bridge project to finance bridges to each county with assistance from federal BIP funds. For Washington County that is a bridge over the Skunk River with an estimated total cost of $9,830,000 with $7,940,000 requested in a BIP grant. Additionally, Washington County will serve as the lead applicant point of contact and primary recipient for the BIP grant application. In other words, Washington County will administer the grant funds through the Iowa DOT.

The board also approved an engagement letter for bond services from Dorsey & Whitney, a Des Moines law firm, for the county’s 2024 General Obligation Purpose bonds in the approximate principal amount of $1,750,000, in a standard agreement action. The cooperative agreement is between the counties and the Iowa County Engineers Association Service Bureau (ICEASB).