The interior of the Falls Municipal Building will undergo a complete renovation this spring after the International Falls City Council on a 4-1 vote Monday agreed to accept an $82,000 bid from KBB, LLC.
Mayor Bob Anderson voted against the project.
In addition to the cost of the contractor, the remodeling project will have a price tag of about $148,813 when complete. Other costs include asbestos removal, design, electrical upgrades and new furniture and filing cabinets.
“I struggle with the need for the project,” Anderson said. “I’m not sure I see a return on the investment for the taxpayers on this kind of expenditure.”
The mayor said he understood the need for “cosmetic” updates such as the replacement of flooring and ceiling tiles, but wondered if the “value” of spending almost $150,000 was necessary.
Public Works Director Gary Skallman said officials from Widseth Smith Nolting and Associates Inc., an engineering and architectural firm, worked with the city to determine if the project was feasible.
Skallman said staff in the city offices have been reduced from five to three people in previous years and visibility becomes an issue when serving the public.
In addition, he noted accessibility issues also were considered and the widths of the turnarounds in the offices would not accommodate a wheelchair.
“That isn’t for just the public, but if staff should need those services, too,” he said.
Councilor Pete Kalar said it is easy to understand people may “not know where to go” when they enter the municipal building.
“If you have an open plan, you’d be able to see where people are... it’d be much more customer friendly,” he said.
Councilor Cynthia Jaksa said the project has been four years in the making.
“I’ve come to regard this as an excellent design,” she said of the proposed remodel. “I think that for the extra bit of cost and effort... it’s a missed opportunity not to do the whole project. We have thought long and hard about this.”
Councilor Gail Rognerud also mentioned the issue of safety.
“Someone could walk into that hallway armed, and there would be no one to see them,” she said.
Anderson said he also had concerns about the bid margins between KBB and three other companies that expressed interest in the project. Up North Builders came in with the next lowest bid of $134,900, followed by JP Structures with $172,800 and Pelland-Swenson with $187,000.
“There is a significant difference between the bids,” Anderson said.
Skallman said the bids were “appreciatively different,” but assured the council that officials from the engineering firm contacted John Beno of KBB who “indicated he is confident in his bid and is not aware of any errors” and will “honor the bid as proposed.”
Still, Anderson didn’t appear to be convinced.
“I wasn’t on the council at the time the specifications were approved and the bids were called for, and I have not reviewed the specifications,” he said. “But do you suppose those specifications are written in such a way that they could be interpreted in several ways that might cause someone to bid $100,000 less than someone else?”
Skallman said prior to the project beginning, all necessary documents will need to be provided by KBB to WSN architects to ensure specifications are understood.
In other council business,
Members voted 4-1 to invite Bemidji City Councilor Ron Johnson to a special city council meeting to share how airport funding is handled in Beltrami County. Anderson voted against the recommendation.
“We’re looking for information on how other communities in the past have achieved equitable and stable funding for their airport and this is primarily an information-seeking meeting,” Jaksa said.
The airport taxing district proposal was rehashed after Jaksa made the recommendation.
“You say the purpose of the meeting is information seeking, and we’ve been down this road a couple of times here... the ideas of a taxing district has not been looked at favorably by the majority of those folks on the airport commission,” Anderson said. “I’m trying to understand the purpose of this meeting. Are we trying to create a public relations movement to see if we can create some pressure to the airport commission or to the (Koochiching) county board? I see that as being very divisive.”
Jaksa said her intent in inviting Johnson to the community was to “gather information to be informed.”
In December, the council approved a resolution calling for the local airport commission, made up of city and Koochiching County representatives and an at-large member, to investigate funding mechanisms that council members say will remedy what they see as “tax unfairness” in funding by the county’s contribution.
The airport is jointly owned by the city and county and governed by the commission. The commission voted against exploring a taxing district prior to the county’s December resolution. The resolution says property taxpayers within the city pay 4.7 times more for support of the airport than other county property taxpayers.
“As the wealth of this area shifts outside of city limits, the 50-50 split that we agreed to back in 1962 needs to be reexamined,” Jaksa said. “As we look at our levy rate compared to the county’s, we have some services that we provide to the entire area that the city taxpayers carry pretty much 100 percent... I think it’s very important to look at the revenue streams as well as the expenditure side. This seemed to be an obvious area to begin.”
Anderson said a taxing district may “be a good thing” for the city of Bemidji and Beltrami County, but didn’t feel it would be a good fit for International Falls and Koochiching County.
In other action, the council unanimously agreed to add two full-time paramedics to the Falls ambulance service.
Last month, Falls Fire and Ambulance Chief Jerry Jensen told the council that adding two paramedics would help spread out the work now being carried, in a large part, by the four paramedics on the service, giving them some needed support. He said the action would result in a cost savings to the city.
Monday’s council action will allow the service to have two, three-person crews working four days on and four days off, rotating days and nights. Two paramedics will work 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and one paramedic will work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m with a volunteer emergency medical technician..
Finally on Monday, the council agreed to allow a street dance hosted by the Viking Bar on June 8.
