At their regular meeting, and the first for newly elected Justin Heath and Greg Koenig, Churchill County Commissioners awarded the contract for building erection services for the Civic Center to Clint Jensen Construction in the amount of $1,298,600.
Public Works Director, Chris Spross said, “it is our attempt to keep the contracts for this job local.” Jensen was the only local contractor to bid on the project and after the geotechnical report required the column fittings to be preloaded, the Colorado company that had bid raised the cost.
Jensen was the lowest, most responsive and competitive bidder.
Deputy District Attorney, Ben Shawcroft, noted the untraditional nature of this public works project because it is being done, “in response to the emergency COVID-19 pandemic and under an emergency, you can dispense with the formal public bidding procedures.” The District Attorney’s office has prepared two memos to the board addressing this issue and providing the justification for using the emergency contracts under this scenario.
Spross said as part of the civil package and contract that Lumos Associates has with the county to do the geotechnical investigation, it was their recommendation to do the pre-loading and any liabilities associated with that fall to them.
In other matters, the Commission declined to support a request from the Elko County Commission for support of a conceptual statewide Lands Bill that would provide for the transfer of certain federal lands to county governments. Jeremy Drew, Resources Specialist with Resource Concepts Inc., explained, “while there are some merits to the approach, I have serious concerns as it relates specifically to Churchill County.”
The language for the proposal is still under development, and there are questions as to whether it would be submitted to Congress or the State Legislature. Additionally, Drew says the approach is inconsistent with the lands bill that Churchill County has developed with extensive stakeholder input and feedback. As it relates to the political landscape, supporting a conceptual lands bill that has not been vetted by the congressional delegation could jeopardize the Churchill Lands Bill that has been vetted.
County Manager Jim Barbee said, “This would be us taking the last four years worth of work and negotiations with the Navy and working with all the affected state agencies and stakeholders and throw that out the window and say we want to start over with this new proposal for a lands bill that has not done any of that.” He says it is nothing against the effort out of Elko County, but this would be a “start over” and Churchill County would lose all the previous work as well as jeopardize the relationships with the congressional delegation who are willing to reintroduce the Churchill Lands Bill within the next few days.
Commissioner Koenig asked if there was any way to reach out and let Elko know that once this is settled with the Navy expansion, we would potentially be happy to jump on board with the rest of the counties?
Barbee said that has been the conversation over the past three years, “Unofficially, we’ve said down the road we could be supportive of this, but we have to be clear of the current situation we find ourselves in.”
The Commission also approved the Annexation Agreement with the City of Fallon allowing county property located at 899 South Maine Street to be annexed into the City. CC Communications is currently building an operations and administration building at the property and will need to access utilities that are most easily accessible through the City.
Pete Olsen was appointed as Chairman of the Commission, with Greg Koenig as Vice-Chairman. Justin Heath was appointed Chairman of the Highway Commission with Koenig as Vice-Chairman, and Koenig was appointed Chairman of the CC Communications Board with Olsen as Vice-Chairman. Appointments to the 23 various boards or committees were also made. Among others, Olsen will serve on the Carson Water Subconservancy District and the Fire Board. Koenig will serve on the Library Board, Museum Board, and the Fallon Youth Club. Heath will serve on the Hospital Board, CART, the Senior Coalition, and Parks and Recreation.
In staff reports, Barbee said that there is proposed legislation being sponsored by Senator Pete Goicoechea in the upcoming legislative session that would address the issue of geothermal abatements that would give counties a say in the approval process.
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