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The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a contract with an Anoka-based company to implement several deferred maintenance and energy efficiency projects totaling over $13 million in the four main county-owned buildings. 

The resolution passed with a 4-1 vote, with 2nd District Commissioner Dan Belshan voting against. 

Freeborn County Administrator Tom Jensen said the county has worked with Apex Facility Solutions LLC for four or five months to assess the needs at the county’s buildings, starting with $20 million in projects and paring that down to immediate needs, or “items that simply have to be done.”  

The list approved by the board — that Jensen said is dependent on costs when Apex gets prices locked in from contractors — includes things such as roof and window replacements, upgrading lighting to LED technology and other heating and cooling replacements. 

Roof replacements alone at all four buildings — the Government Center, the Human Services building, the Environmental Services building and the county highway shop — are projected at a combined almost $4.4 million.  

Some of the upgrades are expected to bring utility savings, which Jensen said the company gives a guaranteed payback. If the county doesn’t see the savings, the company pays the county back itself. 

He said by agreeing to the contract, it locks in with Apex, which will be the general contractor on the work, and the company can in turn lock in prices with contractors. Prices continue to rise, and Jensen said costs increased 20% over the last 90 days. 

“Nobody likes to spend money, but it has been a need for quite some time,” the administrator said. 

The county is expected to issue capital improvement bonds for the projects, which will be timed specifically for when the courthouse bond comes off, he said. The levy will not increase but will decrease because it will be less than the courthouse bond. 

Fifth District Commissioner Ted Herman, a retired Albert Lea police officer who worked in the Government Center, talked about his own personal experience with leaking in the building. He said they had to put plastic in the locker rooms because the water was coming down so hard in the building. 

“It’s serious,” Herman said. “Like Tom said, we don’t want to be spending money foolishly, but also this is a time where we have to save the building. …”

Jensen said when it rains, Freeborn County Attorney David Walker is also housed under blue tarps because of the water leaks in his part of the building. 

“When one gets sealed up, another pops open,” Jensen said. 

Brad Herfindahl, buildings and grounds superintendent, said every time it rains, he is constantly worrying about where the leak is going to come from — not just in the Government Center but at all four facilities. He also talked about leaking windows and HVAC units that are not functioning correctly. Jensen noted the boiler units at the Human Services building are 60 to 70 years old. 

Cody Capra with Apex Facility Solutions said the contract locks in the timeline for the work and pricing from vendors.

Belshan said the situation reminded him of when the original courthouse was built and said he felt the process was rushed. 

“There’s no question that there’s things that are wrong, but $12 to 13 million and it doesn’t cover it?” he said. 

He asked how many people from Apex have been working at the courthouse during the assessment, and Capra said there have been three engineers on-site for about 16 hours a week since December.

Belshan said he understands that the roofs will need to be fixed because without those repairs it could lead to the loss of the buildings. But with other things, he said he felt like Apex was trying to simply sell their company for the work. 

“That’s how the courthouse was built,” Belshan said. “The architect said build it like this — a jail we didn’t need … Personally I wouldn’t put a dime in this building. You’re going to spend $13 million, and Tom is going to come in with another $8 to $10 million on finishing it. Ship the prisoners out — there’s only 29 in here that are local. Get rid of the ICE contract, and put up a nice building that people can actually get to where they want to go.” 

He talked about how far people have to walk to get to certain departments in the county and how it is a hardship, especially to the elderly. 

“I understand where your fix is coming from,” Belshan said. “I understand we need a roof. I cannot support anything close to this $13 million.”

The original courthouse bond was for $26 million, according to Financial Manager Pat Paquin. 

Third District Commissioner John Forman, who was part of the building committee, said the process started out with wishes and ended up with just the needs to protect the buildings. 

“You talk about kicking the can down the road — we’re still kicking half the can down the road because some of those wishes and wants were pretty close to being needs. But we had to cut as much as we could. I think we’re down to bare bones.”

He said the commissioners needed to do something as inflation is not going to subside and interest rates are going up.

In addition to voting on the contract, the board voted 4-1 to have a public hearing at 8:45 a.m. May 3 on the bonding issue for the improvements. Belshan voted against.