County OKs exterior work of building
Also accepts Klanderud’s resignation
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FAIRMONT-- On Tuesday the Martin County Board of Commissioners received some news about the condition of the building at 1200 N. State Street in Fairmont. The county has been working on making improvements to the Fairmont-based, county-owned building in order to rehouse some county departments, including the 4H Extension Office and Veteran Service Office, which were previously leasing various office spaces, in it.
Tim Auringer of Oleson and Hobbie said that construction has begun at the office building with Ankeny Builders beginning to dig into some of the exterior walls to reframe for new windows.
"They are encountering a lot of rot and water infiltration and damage into the exterior walls for the building," Auringer explained.
He asked Ankeny Builders to prepare costs to address some of the damages that have been found. In addition, Auringer said that a roof leak was found.
"The biggest thing in the proposal request you see in front of you is, as we get to all of the repairs of damaged framing, it seems like now would be a good time to reside the building so that everything is uniform," Auringer said.
While he added it wasn't intended to address the exterior of the building during the renovation project, some of the damage discovered requires it.
The board agreed that the request seemed pretty straightforward and approved a proposal request in the amount of $36,427 to address damaged materials, rot and potential replacement work items. Auringer said there could be some additional credit coming back as well.
He said at this point the extra work should not affect the estimated completion date, which is Nov. 13.
"I don't think we should see any delays for this," Auringer said.
Still on the topic of the 1200 N. State Street building, the board considered bids received for parking lot improvements.
Of the four bids, the low bid came from Nielsen Blacktopping & Concrete in the amount of $296,967, which Troy Nemmers of Bolton and Menk said is well below the engineer's estimate. He said it's expected that the work will start in mid-September.
The board unanimously accepted the bid.
Later in the meeting, the board approved of adding a mini split air conditioner unit at the 1200 N. State Street building's storage room and approved a quote from A-OK Service in the amount of $10,100.
Moving to another matter, the board on Tuesday accepted the retirement resignation of Chief Deputy Sheriff, Corey Klanderud, effective Sept. 30.
Klanderud thanked the board for the opportunities he's had and said he's learned a lot on the job and has appreciated support from the various county boards over the years.
On the decision to leave in September, Klanderud said, "I think going now is a good chance to change over the leadership because with the sheriff going beginning in January, I just didn't want to have us both leave at the same time and there's no transfer. Hopefully this will give the new person a couple of months to learn a little bit."
Sheriff Jeff Markquart did not run for reelection this year so will be done in his role of sheriff at the end of the year.
Next, the board approved recruitment of a new full-time sheriff deputy.
"It was requested to add an additional deputy to the 2027 budget, which has been included," explained Human Resources Director, Leigha Johnson.
In other business, the board:
-- Set a budget workshop for 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 11.
-- Approved a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for Mark Ufer to construct a landing field in an "A" agricultural district in Waverly Township.
-- Accepted a bid from Matt's Tile in the amount of $11,346 to remove carpet from 1R of the Human Services building and install tile in the entire area, including the stairway.