photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Jay Zimmerschied, director of capital projects, addresses the Douglas County Commission as part of its meeting Dec. 8, 2021.

Douglas County leaders have approved a budget increase for the county’s mental health crisis center to account for unforeseen design changes and material cost increases.

As part of its meeting Wednesday, the Douglas County Commission voted unanimously to approve an additional $250,000 in funding for the Treatment & Recovery Center, bringing the total project budget to about $10.68 million.

With a few months to go until its completion, the project is getting close to overrunning its original $10.43 million budget, and commissioners agreed it was better to make the additional funds available so the project would not be delayed if other unexpected expenses occurred or material costs increased.

Commissioner Patrick Kelly said that while a $250,000 increase was not ideal, he was comfortable with the increase given the size of the project and the issues the county has encountered.

“I’m comfortable with this based on other work I’ve done on capital projects and knowing how those things can run over,” Kelly said.

Douglas County residents voted in 2018 to approve a quarter-cent sales tax to support the creation of a behavioral health campus. The 20,000-square-foot center is the largest piece of the county’s new campus focused on behavioral health housing and treatment, located at 1000 W. Second St. The campus also includes transitional and supportive housing.

Jay Zimmerschied, director of capital projects, told the commission that design adjustments and increases in material and other costs were driving up the price tag of the project, necessitating the increase in the project’s budget. Zimmerschied said the project is still about three months from being finished, and those adjustments have already nearly depleted the project’s contingency fund.

Though all the funds may not be needed, Zimmerschied said it was important to have the additional funds available so that the project would not be delayed if additional unexpected expenses arose.

“We’re at the point where we think it prudent to look at adding additional dollars at this point so that we can continue to procure the items that we need to furnish and equip the facility such that it’s ready to operate roughly three, three and half months from now,” Zimmerschied said.

Zimmerschied said having additional contingency funds available was also important because pandemic supply chain disruptions have led to the cost of materials increasing more rapidly year-over-year than they typically do.

In a memo to the commission, Zimmerschied provided a summary of some of the most significant operational and design adjustments. They include expanding the kitchen area from a “warming” kitchen to more of a commercial kitchen; additional site grading to improve drainage; and a complete redesign of a street extension because the remains of an 1864 brewery were discovered underground at the site.

County Administrator Sarah Plinsky told the commission that the county anticipated the project would still come in close to the original budget, but that at this stage it was too close for comfort and it was better to make the additional dollars available. Plinsky said there were sufficient funds in the county’s mental health sales tax fund to finance the increase, and that county staff would report back to the commission regarding the final project cost.

Any part of the additional $250,000 that isn’t spent on the construction project will be returned to the mental health sales tax fund, according to the memo.

In other business, the commission accepted an award from the National Board of Directors of the Santa Fe Trail Association. The association awarded Douglas County the Ralph Hathaway Memorial Heritage Preservation Award for its participation and assistance in creating the public access trail to the Black Jack Ruts historic site, which contains historic wagon ruts from the Santa Fe Trail and is located on the Ivan Boyd Memorial Prairie Preserve.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The Douglas County Commission accepts an award from the Santa Fe Trail Association as part of its meeting on Dec. 8, 2021.