The path has been cleared for construction to begin on new ambulance barns in Humboldt and Moran.
Allen County Commissioners approved a construction contract Tuesday with Koehn Construction Services to serve as general contractor for the $698,000 project.
If the weather cooperates, construction could begin by early November, architect Rick Zingre told commissioners.
Tuesdays meeting also doubled as a pre-construction conference session for the EMS barns.
Zingre covered myriad topics, including items necessary prior to work beginning and a construction timeline, and the permitting process applicable for both communities.
Commissioner Bill King eagerly signed the contract at the conclusion of the meeting.
Its my pleasure to sign this, King said. Its been a long time coming. Ive worked on this for a long time, more than a year now, and its finally about here.
The new Humboldt ambulance barn will be constructed a block north of the downtown business district; Morans will be erected in a field just west of Harvest Baptist Church.
In addition to weather concerns, the Moran barns timeline likely will be determined by how quickly the county can get approval from the Kansas Department of Transportation to add a driveway to the site from U.S. 54, Zingre said.
Neither he nor commissioners expected any delay.
Its not going to vary a lot, said Lyle Koehn of Koehn Construction.
The contract sets a construction timeline of 270 calendar days once the notice-to-proceed is given. That will be issued when Koehn is ready to commence with the construction, Zingre said.
WITH commissioners putting their final touches on the countys 2020 budget, Sheriff Bryan Murphy touched on concerns related to his departments budget and anticipated pay raises.
At issue, Murphy said, was the Commissions announcement last week that county employees will receive 3% cost-of-living pay raises, with a chance of receiving another 1% raise by merit.
