CC supervisors award fiber contract, turn focus to potential library costs

By Andre Jones | September 2, 2015 9:30 pm

Charles City supervisors unanimously approved the awarding of a dark fiber installation contract during its Sept. 2 quarterly work session.

While the name of the winning bidder has not been announced, county administrator Zach Trogdon said the supervisors will enter into a labor contract of $302,216.64. Trogdon also mentioned that by entering into the labor-only bid, the county will spend just over $105,000 to purchase materials for the construction.

“By doing this major change, it gets us under our budget for the project,” said the county administrator. “The original target date of completion in October may be pushed back by a couple of weeks, but we thought it was a fair trade-off in this situation.”

Trogdon says the new projected total of $408,397.18 saves the county nearly $90,000 compared to the original bid.

Construction of the fiber optic lines is part of an effort to bring wireless broadband to the county. Charles City received a $600,000 state grant in December 2014. Contracts for the construction of two towers had previously been awarded in July.

In other action, county leaders have asked staff to research the costs of constructing and maintaining a library in Charles City.

District 2 supervisor Bill Coada asked staff to research figures for a stand-alone library for Charles City. Specifically requested were numbers on cost of construction, employing of library staff, maintenance of the facility, and how much it would cost to operate the building on a yearly budget.

In June, county leaders passed a resolution for the decision on the construction of the library to appear on the November 2015 ballet to be voted on by citizens. If approved, the county would work in conjunction with the Charles City Library Campaign Committee to construct the building. The county would then borrow upwards of $2.5 million in bonds.

“I want to know how much it would cost the county in debt service to construct this building,” said Coada. “I want specific figures to see the impact it will have on citizens.”

According to the District 2 representative, previous conversations with the library campaign committee indicated that $2.5 million in donations would be contributed by the committee while the other $2.5 million would be borrowed in bonds, bringing the total construction of a new library to $5 million. A full report on costs to citizens is expected at the Sept. 22 regular meeting.