Colfax property committee recommends demolishing 1903 building

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  The Colfax Village Board’s public property committee is recommending that the village demolish the building built in 1903 on Evergreen Street next to Iverson Park used as storage for salt-sand.

The property committee met August 31 to discuss a variety of facility needs but concluded that demolition of the former village shop now used to store sand for winter road maintenance should be a priority.

During a tour of village facilities August 22, Rand Bates, director of public works, said the door of the building can no longer be closed.

Committee members noted footprints in the pile of sand as evidence that children are playing in the building and said they were concerned for the children’s safety as well as any liability the building presents.

Village employees are careful not to push sand too close to the interior walls to keep pressure off the walls, Bates said.

The building’s stone walls are crumbling in spots.

State law requires the salt-sand mixture be stored on concrete and covered, but if the building is demolished, the pile of sand can be covered with a tarp for a year or two, and the village could eventually move salt-sand storage to the lift station on state Highway 170, Bates said.

The estimate for a new 30-foot by 50-foot structure for the salt-sand with a hoop top is $9,650 for the concrete, plus $16,140 for the cover for a total of $25,790.

Scott Gunnufson, village president and a member of the public property committee, wondered if the area by the lift station has enough room for a sand storage structure.

If the fence is moved, the lift station has plenty of room for sand storage, Bates said.

Gunnufson also wondered if there would be room for a new Department of Public Works building at the lift station.

“Yes,” Bates said.

Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, suggested money may be available in the streets budget to demolish the building yet this fall.

The public property committee unanimously approved a motion to recommend that the village board consider it a priority to demolish the building on Evergreen Street and to approve demolition if money is available in the 2016 budget.

Village trustee Dave Wolff serves as chair of the public property committee.

In addition to Gunnufson, Annie Schieber, village trustee, also serves on the committee.

The public property committee discussed a variety of other facilities needs during the August 31 meeting as well.

DPW building 

The slab along the front of the Department of Public Works building is causing a problem with water infiltration during the spring.

In the winter, the slab heaves and then tips toward the building so that water runs into the building when the snow is melting, Bates said.

So much water infiltrates that the carpeting in the small conference room on the north side of the building becomes saturated, he said.

A proposal from J&K Concrete/Kevin Smeltzer out of Menomonie suggests removing the concrete, 152 feet by eight feet, and then adding eight to ten inches of sand provided by the village, two inches of foam under the slab and pouring new concrete for a total cost of $6,782.

The price quoted by J&K Concrete does not include removing the existing concrete because village employees can do that portion of the project, Bates said.

Lagoon

Engineers from CBS Squared planned to visit Colfax several days after the committee meeting to discuss what would be needed at the lagoon for reducing phosphorus in the discharge to the Red Cedar River by continuing to add alum.

If alum is used on a permanent basis, the lagoon area would need a well, a holding tank, an emergency shower and a building to store the chemical, Niggemann said.

Alum to treat the lagoons for removing phosphorus could cost about $20,000 per year or more.

The state Department of Natural Resources will set the phosphorus limit for Colfax in January.

An alternative to chemical treatment of the wastewater would involve installing a system that would allow the wastewater to irrigate nearby farm fields rather than be discharged to the Red Cedar River.

Bates and Niggemann planned to gather as much as information as possible from their meeting with the engineer and bring the information back to the public property committee for further discussion.

In a matter related to the village’s wastewater treatment facility, the lift station needs a new generator at an estimated cost of $20,000.

There is no storage at the lift station, so that is why a generator is needed, Bates said.

A generator for the lift station would be a priority over a generator for the well houses, he said, noting that the village has a 24-hour supply of water stored in the water tower.

Rescue squad

The rescue squad portion of the Department of Public Works building should have sprinklers, and Don Knutson, rescue squad director, is obtaining estimates for sprinklers upstairs and to cover the whole building, Gunnufson said.

Another problem for the rescue squad is that floor drains were never installed in the ambulance bay, which is a concern for the village’s workers’ compensation carrier, he said.

The workers’ comp people are afraid someone will slip and fall on a floor wet from snow melting off the ambulances, Gunnufson said.

The rescue squad building also needs an exhaust system in the ambulance bay to draw off exhaust from the ambulances so fumes do not infiltrate upstairs to the sleeping quarters.

The estimate for an exhaust system in the ambulance bay is $26,000.

Police department

The Colfax Police Department has sustained water damage in a storage area at the front of the office.

“We need to try to find out where it is coming from this year,” Gunnufson said.

Bates said he and retired Colfax Police Chief Pete Gehring had looked for the source of the water twice but had not been able to find out where the problem originated.

Other needs identified for the police department include an interview room, an evidence room, a private bathroom and a garage where the police vehicle can be kept.

Space needs

What if the rescue squad were moved to the west end of the DPW building and the police department were moved into the rescue squad building? Gunnufson asked.

The village’s administrative offices could also be moved to the DPW building, and the Department of Public Works could then occupy a new building out at the lift station, he said.

The question is “how to remedy (the deficiencies) without putting a lot of money into it and being efficient for the taxpayers,” Gunnufson said.

The Village of Colfax has, to date, already spent about $600,000 on the DPW building.

Renovating the east end of the DPW building to house the rescue squad cost about $150,000 in 2010.

An additional cost occurred when a state inspector said a fire escape needed to be constructed on the south side of the building for the rescue squad’s sleeping quarters upstairs.

The rescue squad is paying back the amount to the village at a rate of a little more than $12,000 per year over 20 years.

Remodeling the west end of the DPW building for the rescue squad would be another cost to the village, and the middle of the building also would need to be remodeled to house the administrative offices.

The cost of a new DPW building at the lift station would be in addition to further remodeling at the existing DPW building.

“Colfax needs more than that (the municipal building) can accommodate,” Wolff said.

“The village board could hold informational meetings for village residents to show them “this is what we need to run the village government efficiently,” he said.

Library

If the police department and the village’s administrative offices moved to the Department of Public Works Building, then the library could expand into the rest of the municipal building, Wolff said.

If the library stayed in the municipal building, the parking lot in back of the building could be used for library parking, said Lisa Bragg-Hurlburt, director of the Colfax Public Library.

The municipal building also needs a lift or an elevator to make it completely handicapped accessible, she said.

Or the Grapevine building could be acquired for a library site, or a new library could be built on the lot between Dollar General and the car wash, or a library could be built on school property, Gunnufson said.

Cost estimates to build a new library are $200 per square foot, and the recommendation is 10,000 square feet to accommodate the Colfax Public Library’s circulation area. At $200 per square foot for 10,000 square feet, a new library would cost around $2 million.

Kyle’s Market in Colfax is an example of a 10,000 square-foot building.

Since the majority of the Colfax Public Library’s patrons live outside of the village of Colfax, the majority of the funding for the Colfax Public Library comes from Dunn County.

Colfax has a population of 1,158 but the library’s service population, which includes residents in surrounding townships for whom Dunn County provides 100 percent library funding, is a little over 3,100.

Since people living in the townships surrounding Colfax account for 60 percent of the Colfax Public Library’s circulation, Dunn County provides 60 percent of the funding to operate the Colfax Public Library.

The village needs a long-range plan, a short-range plan and a cost for each section of the plan, Niggemann said.

The library board also needs to decide whether the library should stay in the municipal building or whether to build a new library, Schieber said.

“We need to recognize people’s concern for this building,” Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The Colfax Village Board’s public property committee will meet next on September 15 at 5 p.m. at the village hall.