More than two years after a June 17, 2010, tornado leveled much of the Wadena County Fairgrounds, a new Sheriff's storage building is going to be built, with construction starting next week.
At their Thursday meeting, Wadena County commissioners awarded a contract to Black Pearl Builders of Cold Spring, Minn., for $180,799, to construct the 58-foot-by-80-foot building, and $13,250 to install in-floor heating in the concrete slab that will form the floor of about half of the building. The other half of the floor - the part used for vehicle and equipment storage - will be dirt.
Chad Bormann of BHH Partners of Perham, the architecture firm on the project, said Black Pearl Builders had pledged to use as many local, Wadena County-based subcontractors as possible in the project. Black Pearl also agreed to complete the project by Jan. 18.
Nine firms submitted bids on the Sheriff's Storage Building project. Highway engineer Ryan Odden and Bormann said they were very pleased with the amount of interest in the project and the quality of the bids.
Odden said there will be close oversight of the project by officials from FEMA and the Minnesota Department of Homeland Security, since a large portion of the $200,000 funding came from those sources.
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"We will be audited," Odden said.
The board also voted to approve altering the design of the new grandstand that is scheduled to be built at the fairgrounds. The design of the grandstand will be changed to raise the seating height by 16 inches, to allow portable bleachers to be placed in front of the grandstand for certain events.
Odden did not anticipate the change would be costly, since it was being made before the beginning of construction.
In a third fairgrounds-related agenda item, Wadena City Electric Department staff member Dave Evans came before the board to request an easement from the county on fairgrounds land for an underground electric line to provide power to a building south of U.S. Highway 10.
The easement will run north and south, and link up with existing power lines that currently run east and west on an existing easement through the fairgrounds. The new underground line will be buried five feet deep, Evans said.
The board voted to approve the granting of the easement to the City of Wadena.
