County looks to finalize cost estimate, finance options for new court building
GAYLORD — Otsego County Administrator Matt Barresi said the county is moving ahead on the process of constructing a new building to house judicial and related functions that are now in the the J. Richard Yuill Alpine Center.
Last year, the Otsego County Board of Commissioners approved a proposal to move the court and other governmental functions out of the Alpine Center. The building was constructed as a tuberculosis sanatorium in the 1930s and was eventually sold to the county along with 160 acres for $1 in 1982.
It has since fallen into disrepair and in 2022 water began leaking into some of the court offices. While roof repairs temporarily addressed the situation, estimates to permanently fix the roof ranged as high as just under $400,000. Otsego County hired Mackinac Environmental Technology Inc. in 2022 to test the interior surface and air quality and found some areas that had mold.
At a recent meeting of the county board's finance committee, Barresi said a project architect has met with all the departments that will occupy the new building to go over their needs for the structure.
"We know what square footage they need and now we need to take that square footage amount and come up with what it will cost to build a structure based on that," Barresi said Tuesday. "We will hire a project manager to come up with a firm cost estimate. We have estimated around $7 million will be needed. So then the question becomes how we come up with that amount."
Previously, the county had decided to utilize up to $3.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to construct the new building on land adjacent to the county dog park between Otsego and Illinois avenues in Gaylord.
Setting aside the $3.5 million has enabled the county to hire the architect and eventually the project manager, said Barresi. He added the county has several options in deciding how to come up with the additional $3.5 million to reach $7 million if that estimate holds.
"We do have a total of $4.7 million in ARPA funds so that is a possibility," Barresi said, noting that the county also has a building improvement fund, the general fund or it could opt to take out a loan or use some other kind of financing method. The county board will have the final say on that issue.
In addition to the court and related functions there are other offices in the Alpine Center that will need to be relocated, including MSU Extension, the Otsego Conservation District and other organizations that lease space in the center.
For those, Barresi said the county could look at using a county-owned building at 1322 Hayes Road that was home to the building department, which has now moved into the county building on Main Street in downtown Gaylord.
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More: Wolverine Power targets former GP site for a solar farm
Meanwhile at Tuesday's county board meeting, the panel signed off on a lease agreement with Wolverine Power Cooperative for the company to lease land at the county-owned Gaylord Regional Airport for the installation of solar panels.
"This is for land that the airport can't use for development. This will bring in an average of $50,000 to $60,000 a year and make the airport self sufficient for many years," said Barresi.
In 2022, Wolverine Power purchased the former Georgia Pacific property located next to the airport and has submitted plans to regulators to operate a 150-megawatt solar panel field on it.
— Contact Paul Welitzkin at pwelitzkin@gaylordheraldtimes.com.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Otsego County looks to finalize cost estimate, finance options for new court building
