Editor's note: This is the second installment of a two-part story regarding the construction of the new jail addition and renovation of the courthouse. Part 1 of this story explained how the project came about and how a bond issue was approved by Dickinson County voters. This installment explains the various challenges - the expected and the unexpected - involved with phase 1, building the jail, and Phase 2, renovating the courthouse.
READ PART 1: A rocky path to completion
By KATHY HAGEMAN Dickinson County public information coordinator
Today, the new jail addition and renovated courthouse is a source of pride for many in Dickinson County, but it was a project that had more than its share of twists and turns.
Dickinson County Administrator Brad Homman sums up the situation:
“If you would have told me that we were going to have to do two elections (after a protest petition against it was filed), design the project twice to scale it down for the second design, be hit with a worldwide pandemic as we started the project that shut down society as we know it - resulting in a shortage of skilled workers to do the work, then the government would infuse tons of money into our economy which resulted in contractors that were scheduled to work on our project going elsewhere for more money, and that every time we dug a hole for the foundation we would hit a new surprise - water, tanks, or something similar we did not know about.
“Then we would get hit with price increases and inflation like we have never experienced before, and then experience supply chain issues where we couldn’t get simple things like doors and openers, I would have told you that you were crazy!”
What should have taken 16 to 18 months ended up taking about two years.
“It wasn’t a huge amount of time, but it was significant,” Homman said.
But despite all the negatives, the courthouse construction/renovation project had some silver linings. The county received federal monies from the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) that were used to pay for some additional projects -- like paving the parking lot and upgrading technology in the courtrooms -- that would not have happened otherwise.
Also, the county hopes to receive tax credits for working with state historians to maintain the historical significance of the 1956-building. The sale of those credits could potentially bring in several hundred thousand dollars to help pay off the debt.
In the weeks and months following the successful 2018 bond issue, Goldberg Group Architects staff worked on plans for the new jail and courthouse renovation. About a year later in July 2019, the county commission met with Loyd Builders, the construction manager at risk, to review the bids.
“Exactly what (Architect) Larry Goldberg told us was going to happen happened. He said every year you wait you’re going to see a four-to-six percent increase on construction costs and this was all pre-COVID. After COVID, all the rules went out the window,” Homman said.
“He told us you’re going to have trouble finding professional and skilled laborers, brick masons, electricians, plumbers, concrete finishers,” Homman continued. “That was absolute fact and truer than we ever imagined it would be.”
When the bids came in for phase 1 and phase 2, they were too high.
“I reached out to several contractors who said they could bid phase 1 very competitively because they were going to order materials as soon as the papers were signed,” Homman said. “But we were also asking them to bid phase 2, which wasn’t even going to start until after the jail was done.
“They said, ‘you’re asking us to bid something construction-wise which is months down the road when we have no idea what the costs are going to be’,” Homman related.
So, the decision was made to rebid phase 1 and then wait until the jail portion was nearing completion and bid phase 2.
“We got our phase 1 bids more competitively, but by the time phase 2 came around, the pandemic forced costs to go through the roof.” Homman said.
A ground-breaking ceremony was held on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019, involving representatives from the county, Goldberg Group Architects, Loyd Builders and others. A few days later fencing was installed to create a construction perimeter and soon after, work began.
One of the first challenges – which may turn out to be a blessing in disguise – occurred because the courthouse is located in the Abilene historic district. Thus, any changes to the existing structure had to be reviewed by the state’s historical preservation office.
“The building is not on the historic register, but it’s a contributor to the historical district,” Homman explained. “We met with two staff members from the SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) who wanted to see the building. They told us to do your best to maintain the look of the courthouse. They didn’t want us to replace the windows, because the windows of the 1956-era were unique.”
However, since achieving energy efficiency and lowering utility bills was a major goal of the renovation, leaving in the original windows was not an option. They had lost any insulating value they once had years ago. The seals had dried out and anytime the wind blew, the shades moved, bringing hot or cold air directly into the building.
“We planned to use some of the money we saved in energy efficiency to help pay for the renovation,” Homman explained.
As a compromise, several original windows on the east end of what was the sheriff’s department were left in the wall, although they are hidden underneath sheet rock. Also hidden on the outside are the window frames of the original building. They are still there, but covered by a material that looks like limestone.
“If someone wants to take the new windows out and buy windows that look like those in the 1950s they could do it,” Homman said.
Other 1956-era windows remain in the hallways, although they too are not visible. Each office used to have a window next to the entry door, but those windows were no longer safe in a “secure courthouse” since they could easily be shot out during an active shooter incident.
“If 100 years from now, the county commission wants to turn the courthouse back to the way it was in 1956 they could do that,” Homman said. “Outside, we did our best to maintain the same physical façade and look.”
By following the various SHPO directives, the county should be eligible to receive tax credits that could be sold.
“There’s a grant program to promote the historical significance of buildings in Kansas,” Homman said. “They will give you grants up to 25 percent of your investment in tax certificates.”
While the county does not have to pay taxes, it can still obtain tax credits which can be sold to businesses and companies that do. Theoretically, if the county were to receive $1 million in tax credits, and can sell the tax credits for say, 85 cents on the dollar, that means the county could get paid $850,000 that could be used to help pay off the bond.
One of the first problems occurred early on when the vendor that was awarded the concrete bid called the day before they were scheduled to be on site and said they were not coming. That resulted in litigation between the construction manager at risk and the vendor; however, it was a tough blow to the budget.
The contractor that bailed was $60,000 cheaper on the flat surface bid than the second lowest bidder.
“We called the next lowest bidder, and by then COVID had hit and the first round of CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) money was coming out to the schools and it had a deadline,” Homman said. “So that vendor said we’ll be out as soon as we can. Another vendor we called was going to be $200,000 higher and they didn’t have anybody to send.”
More extra costs were incurred after underground debris - from a long-buried kerosene tank used to heat the courthouse in the 1950s - was found while excavating and that debris had to be dug up and removed. Even though penetrating radar had been used ahead of time to scan the ground, it was not discovered until groundwork began.
Another issue occurred as the walls for the jail addition were being built.
“If you’ve got an existing building and you’re digging right next to the wall, you risk the underlayment coming out and the wall caving in,” Homman said.
“The ground wasn’t strong enough to hold the pressure of those walls so they had to put in more of them and had to go down deeper. They drilled piers down to the bedrock, then poured piers with columns full of steel and concrete,” he said.
“They were afraid the soil underground wasn’t stable enough to hold it. Then when we got down to about 18-feet and water started running in. We had to find pumps and pump it out. Then it would rain.”
In hindsight it would have been easier to put a basement under the new addition, but that had been cut to lower the amount of the bond issue.
“It took forever to get the project off the ground,” Homman added. “Once we got the flat stuff down it was time for the masons to come in and that company could only send a couple guys over at a time.”
“Most things drug along at a snail’s pace and all the while we could hear the price of things in the economy ticking upward,” Homman said.
“Every two weeks we had an owner-contractor meeting to talk about how things were progressing and we’d be sitting at the same place we were two weeks ago,” he added. “It seemed like everything that could go wrong – did – except nobody got hurt, and we were really thankful for that.”
Homman said he did not realize how much of a challenge dividing the project into two phases would pose for Tom Shirack, Loyd Builder’s project supervisor.
“When we started with phase 1 they were running conduit and electricians were showing up trying to figure out where the power in the new building is coming from. Well, it was coming in from a room in the courthouse that was going to be built in phase 2,” Homman recalled. “So how do we make this work? We ended up putting in a generator and power service into a room that was being used and moved part of the sheriff’s department out.”
Another problematic phase 1/phase 2 crossover involved the new HVAC rooftop units. While they sit on top of the new addition, they also serve part of the original courthouse.
“We had to get 911 dispatch out of the basement of the original courthouse and had built a temporary office for them in the old sheriff’s department garage. We tried to put a window air conditioning unit in there but it wouldn’t keep it cool enough. We had to get climate control in there while the building was being gutted, but the RTU (rooftop units) on the jail building were not hooked up yet and there was no power in the courthouse.”
The solution involved running temporary ductwork from the new addition into the old garage area used by dispatch to keep staff cool.
In order for the renovation to occur, all offices (except 911 dispatch which stayed in the old garage area) had to move somewhere else so the building could be gutted.
Originally it was thought Sterl Hall was large enough to accommodate everyone, “but once we got to measuring and looking at where we could put up walls, the space got smaller and smaller,” Homman said.
Realizing Sterl Hall could not accommodate all departments, the county next looked into renting modular units, like school districts commonly do when they need extra space, but that idea was not optimal. Then the thought of using the Abilene Civic Center came to mind.
“I talked to Julie Roller Weeks (Abilene Convention & Visitor’s Bureau director) and said the civic center would be ideal,” Homman recalled. “It’s in close proximity to the courthouse, it has ground parking, there’s no stairs or elevators. We’ll make it work.”
Roller Weeks worked with the city manager and city commission to make the temporary location a reality for the county.
“We did an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the city saying they’d let us use the building for free and we’d make any improvements and pay the expenses,” Homman said. “When we leave it will be the same or better than when we moved in.”
The county made permanent improvements to the building so it could handle the various offices’ electrical and technology needs, including adding data and power boxes, rewiring the electrical panel, putting in an alarm system, replacing the locks in the building, upgrading the plumbing, repairing doors that didn’t shut properly and sealing them and other fixes.
“This worked out really well for us and the city. It helped them save some budget money which helped. During the pandemic, they had been shut down and they weren’t having to pay utility bills on a place they couldn’t rent out,” Homman said.
As Phase 2 commenced, workforce and supply chain issues were rampant, slowing down the progress even more -- no thanks to fallout from the COVID pandemic.
One positive, however, came in the form of ARPA funds, which gave the county needed monies that could be used to enhance various aspects of the project, including switching out the asphalt parking lot for a concrete one.
“The original specs called for an asphalt parking lot, resurfacing the parking lot and having a sidewalk down the middle,” Homman said. “But John Gough (former county engineer) suggested we take that parking lot curbing out. So, when the road and bridge guys come in here at 4 a.m. in the dark to clear snow they won’t have to deal with the curbs.
“When it rains, the water will be a sheet runoff into the grass,” he added.
Switching to concrete cost about $80,000, but concrete has an approximate 50-year life span as opposed to asphalt with only about 10 years.
Inadvertently overlooked in the design process was installation of a fire lane to park firetrucks if there were a fire. Located on the northeast side of the building, the fire lane ended up being an additional $60,000 to $80,000 unplanned cost.
Another unplanned cost came when it was discovered the courthouse roof needed to be replaced, because it had been done incorrectly previously.
Before the coronavirus shutdown, court proceedings were nearly all done in person, but when they went remote due to necessity that was a game changer.
“When they were forced to use technology, they found out it was so efficient that they will never go back,” Homman said.
Most attorneys who represent clients in Dickinson County have offices in Salina, Junction City and other places, meaning they always had to drive to Abilene to appear in Dickinson County District Court. It is common for an attorney to have hearings in multiple courts scheduled during the same time period. So, if a hearing in Salina ran longer than expected, it often meant a hearing in Abilene had to be rescheduled.
That problem was pretty well eliminated by going to remote hearings on Zoom.
“The attorney can sit in his office, attend those hearings and never leave his desk. And the judge can keep his docket going,” Homman said.
After learning that Lyon and Cowley counties had installed new tech system in their courtrooms, Homman said he contacted the Wichita company that installs the highly-specialized systems, specifically geared for the courtroom.
Knowing that the renovation was the best time to add the system, the decision was made to use some of the ARPA money to pay for the $280,000 system.
“We were able to do extra projects using ARPA funds and not local ad valorum tax money,” Homman explained.
The additional projects, plus the unexpected costs, brought the total up to approximately $18.3 million from the $15 million originally planned, according to Asst. County Administrator/Budget Director Janelle Dockendorf.
“Those things all add up,” Dockendorf said.
“Three million is a lot of money, but some of that was planned expenditures, like the parking lot, the courtroom audio-visual, and the rest was due to increased costs,” Dockendorf added. “COVID played into that.”
Homman and Dockendorf both said the county was fortunate to have the ARPA money, otherwise the “extras” would not have happened.
“We will be saving money in the long run with the parking lot. We’re saving money with the efficiency of having the audio-visual in the courtroom, and the roof needed to be done and we were going to have to pay for it whether we used ARPA money or county money,” Homman said. “It was all stuff we didn’t have in the plan. But I’m thankful that through good planning and good management of our resources we were able to do it without increasing anybody’s tax debt.”
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