Rice County to Bid for Landfill Roof Replacement

The Rice County Board of Commissioners today unanimously approved a request to ask for bids for the Landfill main building roof replacement.  County Parks and Facilities Director Matthew Verdick made the request at the regular meeting of the board in the Commissioner's Room of the Government Services Building in Faribault.

Verdick explained, "There was damage from the tornado a few years back.  It was repaired and the repairs are actually not holding up very well.  Actually one of the repairs got ripped off yesterday with the high wind. It would be nice to get it repaired yet this fall."

Verdick added payment for the project would come from the landfill reserves.

Commissioners also approved a $30,812.87 change order for the new Fairgrounds Bathroom Building.

Verdick told Commisisoners, "The majority of that is for replacing the water line and the sewer going to the building.  There is one item that I worked with Commissioner Underdahl on switching from steel to aluminum to get a better product.  So that one more item might be changed."

Commissioners asked what the price for the bathrooms was at now and the reply was just under $300,000.

Commissioner Galen Malecha commented, "We should be getting a deck and a screened in porch for that."  Commisisoner Dave Miller replied, "Unfortunately there were some unseen things we didn't know about.  We have to do it to keep the work going."

Verdick says, "The water line coming in wasn't the correct size and then the city noted the sewer wasn't in the greatest shape.  We weren't going to take care of it at this time but once we were taking the water line out it would save us funds in the future to replace the sewer and the water at the same time.  So it was more cost effective to do it all now versus pushing one back out."

Malecha understood but quipped, "That's an awful lot of porta potties."