Property committee recommends $1.04 million jail chiller contract to full board

Kurt Rimley, a project architect with BCA Architects, told the LaSalle County Property Committee the lowest responsible bidder for the jail chiller project was John Service and Sales and that he recommended the county accept the base bid plus alternate number 1 for $1,042,400. That figure is substantially below the $1.5 million estimate placed earlier in the project's expedited budget.

The recommendation covered the scope to replace or repair the jail chillers that have caused repeated problems, Rimley said, and the committee should forward the contract to the full board for award and execution. "I interviewed the contractor, made sure everything's in order, and I went ahead and gave a formal recommendation to chairman Jensen," Rimley said.

Chair moved that the committee forward the contract recommendation to the full board. The motion was made, seconded, and approved by voice vote, and the contract recommendation will be placed on the next full‑board agenda for formal action. No formal award was executed at the committee meeting; the committee merely forwarded its recommendation for approval by the full board.

The assessor's office remodel and a separate window trial were discussed in the same project update: Rimley said assessor remodel documents were about 95% complete and would be advertised for bid with responses expected in June and board action scheduled for July.

Next steps: the chiller contract recommendation will be docketed for the full‑board meeting; decisions on award and contract execution will be made there.