photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

The Douglas County Commission met in a courtroom at the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. That building will be the setting for the commission's remaining November meetings following water damage to their usual meeting space at the Douglas County Courthouse last week.

Douglas County leaders voted Wednesday to move forward on a $3 million road improvement project south of Lawrence near Wells Overlook Park.

At their meeting on Wednesday, county commissioners awarded the contract for improvements on North 1000 Road — or County Route 458 — to Oskaloosa-based Kings Construction Company. That contractor offered the lowest bid at $3,035,036.15; the county also got bids from three other companies ranging from around $3.15 million to almost $3.7 million.

The project will add safety features to North 1000 Road between East 1500 and East 1600 roads, which public works director Chad Voigt said is a fairly high-traffic area that carries about 2,500 vehicles per day. He said the county’s been setting aside money for the project since 2014, and it’s been included in the county’s Capital Improvement Plan for several years.

“This project came in with a good bid,” Voigt said. “It was higher than we would’ve estimated a year ago, but it’s lower than the trends we’ve been seeing, so we’re fairly happy with it.”

Work on the project is set to begin in spring of 2023, Voigt said, and will likely be finished by the end of that year. The plans call for adjusting the roadway’s vertical profile to increase drivers’ sight distance when cresting hills. Two large culverts and four smaller culverts will be replaced and lengthened, and paved shoulders will be added to the roadway to improve traffic safety. Roadside ditches will also be reconstructed, and an eastbound right turn lane will be added at the intersection with East 1600 Road.

In other business, the commission:

• Heard an update from Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky about next week’s meeting location and agenda.

Because of water damage to the commission meeting room at the Douglas County Courthouse, Wednesday’s meeting was held at the nearby Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, and Plinsky said the commission’s meetings would continue to take place there through the rest of November.

Plinsky said there’s no full cost estimate yet for repairing the water damage, which occurred while contractors were working on the courthouse’s sprinklers last week. She did say, however, that the audiovisual equipment in the meeting room was nearly a “complete loss.”

Next week, Plinsky said she expected several big items to come before the commission — the county’s new five-year Capital Improvement Plan and an update on the yet-to-open mental health crisis center.

Commissioners got their first look at the proposed version of the Capital Improvement Plan last week, but they have yet to vote on whether to approve it. Plinsky said she expected the CIP would be on the agenda for a vote next week.

Plinsky also told commissioners that in the past week, she’s had productive conversations with Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center CEO Patrick Schmitz and LMH Health president and CEO Russ Johnson about the Treatment and Recovery Center of Douglas County. The county and health officials have been at odds recently over issues related to the crisis center, and Plinsky said she would give more details at next week’s meeting.

• Heard an update from Community Children’s Center executive director Kim Polson about progress with the nonprofit’s Early Childhood Community Center project.

Commissioners selected the nonprofit as one of the recipients of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funds in July.

Since then, Polson said, there’s been plenty of progress. The nonprofit closed on the property which will house the community center — 346 Maine St., the former site of the Medical Arts Building & Pharmacy — on Aug. 30. Bartlett & West and Dahl Construction were selected as the project’s design/build team in September, and Polson said in October the nonprofit was selected as one of 10 recipients for a Kansas Department of Children and Families grant to help support the project.

Polson said leaders with the nonprofit would soon be undertaking site visits to a number of existing early childhood community centers in other communities. She told commissioners she anticipates renovations at 346 Maine St. will begin at the start of 2023 and be complete by January of 2024. The nonprofit is projecting that child care staff will be hired and classrooms will be open by the fall of 2024.

• Approved an additional $25,000 in project funding for remodeling the accounts payable and payroll department areas of the Douglas County Courthouse, bringing the project’s total budget to $389,138.