Boone County Commissioners on Monday accepted a construction bid and adopted a resolution to issue up to $2 million in limited tax bonds to finance construction of the planned new county-owned building on the fairgrounds.
They accepted a bid of $2,966,035 from Rathman-Manning Corp. of Chapman, NE, for construction.
Rathman-Manning submitted the apparent low bid among six bids received. However, their estimated days of construction, at 455 days, were higher than other bidders.
Bierman Contracting, Inc. of Columbus submitted the second lowest bid of $2,997,300, with 325 days of construction.
Kurt Kruse, a member of the building planning committee, said discussions had been held with Rathman-Manning, and they had agreed to shorten the construction term. Both of the two lower bids were for Behlen buildings, he said.
As determined last week, the building fund drive is expected to raise $1.7 million or more over 10 years to finance construction.
Kevin Rasmussen, a building committee member, said the fund drive is going well, and he is confident of going over the stated goal of $850,000 in matching funds.
Commissioners had previously committed up to $1.3 million from the county’s Inheritance Tax fund for the construction.
Rasmussen said a countywide fund drive would start following the commissioners’ actions Monday.
It was noted that all pledge agreements must be signed. Jeff Jarecki, attorney for the County Ag Society, and Jim Ely, county attorney, said they are in the process of finalizing the pledge agreements.
Read the complete story in the Aug. 29 Albion News & Petersburg Press, Print and E-Editions.
