Board approves architect contract to design courthouse freight‑elevator replacement

The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors voted to approve a contract with CMBA Architects to provide architectural and engineering services for the county courthouse freight‑elevator replacement.

County staff member Kenny Schmitz presented the contract and said the overall replacement is expected to exceed the county’s Chapter 26 bid threshold (stated in the meeting as $175,000), which triggers a requirement for formal architectural or engineering design and public bidding. Schmitz introduced Terry Glade of CMBA Architects, who said the design team expects to post plans for bid in February and that equipment lead times could make project completion likely toward the end of next year.

Supervisor questions focused on the project timeline and whether the elevator work could be scheduled to avoid interfering with county elections. Schmitz and CMBA said timing will depend on the contractor awarded the work and equipment availability; they said vendors had estimated roughly six months’ manufacturing lead time and that the county would “try to expedite” delivery while noting some factors were out of staff control.

Supervisor Nelson moved to approve the contract; the motion carried unanimously. The agenda described the contract amount in the transcript as “62,500” (the oral transcription in the meeting audio is garbled); the transcript also records a discussion that the overall elevator replacement cost will exceed the $175,000 bid threshold and therefore require formal bid documents and design specifications.

The board did not set a firm construction start date at the meeting; staff said they would include timeline considerations in the bid documents and work with vendors to minimize disruption to elections and county operations.