Dunn County staff present $750,000 design request for new highway facility; borrowing plan aims to stabilize levy

At a Dunn County Board of Supervisors Capital Improvement Plan workshop, county staff outlined plans for a new highway facility that would add covered storage, a drive-through wash bay and a remodeled shop to accommodate modern plow trucks and equipment.

The proposal presented by county staff would add a roughly 72,000-square-foot precast concrete building for equipment storage, plus a later remodel of the existing 43,000-square-foot main shop (about 19,000 square feet used for parking and about 16,000 square feet for repair work). Staff said the CIP request for 2026–2030 would include about $757,000 for design work in the first year; construction and remodel estimates are preliminary and based on 2024 costs.

The county’s municipal advisers modeled borrowing over a 20-year repayment schedule and used a conservative 4.5% interest-rate assumption to estimate debt service. Staff said the CIP presentation assumes a pattern of periodic borrowing (including an illustrative perpetual $3 million annual borrowing bucket) and that payment schedules could be structured to smooth annual debt service so the levy does not spike.

County staff stressed the design-only request would not itself build the facility; it would fund engineering, environmental documentation, bidding and construction oversight so the project could later be bid and built. Staff said the design figure covers design fees, environmental documents and owner’s representative/oversight during construction and that the estimate would be bid before any contract award.

Supervisors asked about scope, costs and alternatives. Staff said the new precast concrete structure was selected over a steel alternative because of durability under road salts and heavy equipment use and because comparable facilities in the region used precast concrete. Supervisors pressed on whether the chosen option leaves room for future growth; staff said the chosen “biggest” option includes modest room for expansion. Supervisors also asked about automatic versus manual wash bays; staff said the current estimate is for a manual wash bay with an underbody spray, noting automatic systems can be maintenance-intensive.

Staff noted construction and remodel cost estimates do not yet include space for the sheriff’s department, which may be added later and would raise the overall cost. A remodel of the existing space was shown at about $1.4 million as a planning-level estimate; staff emphasized all numbers are estimates and that construction costs had not declined.

Beata, the county finance presenter, summarized how the design request fits into the five-year CIP and highlighted the county’s current general fund balance (reported in materials as about $12.7 million, roughly 49% of annual expenditures) and the county’s ability to structure borrowing to avoid a levy increase. Staff noted COVID-era ARPA funds had reduced borrowing needs in recent years and that department fund balances could be used for one-time design costs if the board preferred.

No formal vote was taken; staff said the CIP workshop is informational and that any borrowing or project approvals would return to committees and the full board for formal action.

Ending: County staff said next steps include committee review in May and formal budget/CIP decisions in later meetings; they recommended supervisors use the committee process to request more detailed cost breakdowns and to receive bid comparisons before any construction contract is awarded.