The Harvey County Commission approved moving ahead with construction to remodel the County-owned building at 215 S. Pine St. in Newton at its Nov. 12 meeting.
The Commission accepted a bid from Vogts Construction for $1,877,000 for the project, which included three alternate items. Vogts' was the lowest of four bids received for the project. The project scope was created by Schaefer Architecture.
The Commission began the process to purchase the three-story building in November of 2022. The County had rented the second floor of the facility to house the Harvey County Health Department since 2015, which remains in the same location after the purchase.
The facility will be renovated to outfit the first and third floors to move several County departments into the building. The County sought to acquire property in 2022 to address growing space concerns at the Harvey County Courthouse. The State of Kansas at that time directed two judgeship positions be added to the Ninth Judicial District, requiring more space needs for the district court at the Courthouse.
The Pine Street project is anticipated to fall under budget. The Commission set aside about $4.1 million in its adopted 2025 budget for the remodel, including costs for construction, architectural fees and contingency funds.
Construction on the renovation is tentatively scheduled to begin in January. Some services may be modified throughout the project - more information on those changes will be available near the start of the project.
(Updated Nov. 18, 2024)
