Cerro Gordo supervisors finalize plans for courthouse entry project

MASON CITY — The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors in the near future will finalize a contract with Henkel Construction of Mason City on security improvements to the front entrance of the courthouse.

The new entry would have four double doors, with two doors leading inside and two others leading outside. Metal scanners would be installed as part of the new entry.

The supervisors last week approved Henkel’s bid, but today during a workshop session discussed three alternates that were part of the proposal.  The supervisors today rejected two of the alternates, one dealing with replacing the gold lettering on the front of the courthouse, while the other would have removed the part of the project putting a bulletproof glazing on the interior doors and the on the Recorder’s office windows.

County administrative officer Tom Meyer says the other alternate was replacing a heater near the front of the courthouse while the entry work was being done.  “I know that heater in the entryway which is the back of your office makes a lot of noise. I just thought they might as well bid that if you wanted to replace it. It still works, but it’s just loud. So I thought I’d have that as an alternate.”

Meyer and supervisors chair Lori Meacham Ginapp say the heater project should be done at the same time as the entryway.   Meyer says, “When we added this alternate bid because they are going to have the whole vestibule torn apart, so if we’re going to do it, it makes sense to do it now.” Ginapp says, “Because if we didn’t do it now and we continue to have that problem, then we’d have to even pay more money on top of it to open it back up and fix it.”

Henkel’s base bid was $273,000, which was above the engineer’s estimated cost of about $180,000. With the heater replacement alternate bid, the total cost would be $306,000.

The project is scheduled to start on June 10th and would be a four-week project. Meyer says the front entry will be closed and people will have to use the doors on the southwestern side of the courthouse.