The Boone County finance committee heard a presentation July 17 on value‑engineering deductions for the health department administrative campus that officials said will reduce the contract price by at least $150,000 and likely more than $200,000.

County project manager Randy Darnell of CCS told the committee the items in the packet “are the result of a comprehensive value engineering process by the project team resulting in over $200,000 of deductions to the contract.” He said many items are substitutions rather than deletions and that a few larger items (HVAC, electrical and one permitting item) still require technical review. "What I can assure you is that the value of those deducts will not be less than 150,000 and likely north of $200,000," Darnell said.

The packet and discussion noted one additional option not included in the VE list: removing the building’s multipurpose room, which Darnell said would reduce cost by about $250,000 if the county chose that alternate. Board members clarified the multipurpose room was being left in the design for now and that accepting the $250,000 deduct for removing it would preclude taking certain other VE items (item 16 on the list).

Committee members repeatedly praised the team’s work to reduce cost. One member said the revised total with VE items brings the project to "down right at 4,000,000 or just under 4,000,000," and members asked staff to finalize and present a firm reduced-contract figure to the accounting board. Darnell said staff and the architect will refine the list and provide a final number next week so the county will have a figure to vote on by the July 31 meeting.

There was no formal vote on the deductions during the finance meeting; staff said the next step is to finalize numbers, present them to the accounting board, and return to the county board for any approval required.

Background: presenters said the list of VE items does not include the multipurpose-room alternate and that the architect and engineers had not yet completed the technical review of some larger systems at the time of the briefing. Darnell and county staff committed to a final, itemized total for board consideration by the July 31 meeting.

The committee’s discussion focused on savings and sequencing; members asked for a final dollar amount and the project team said it would deliver that figure for a formal vote at the next board meeting.