Cole County will take possession of what will be its new health department building Thursday.
At Tuesday's regular meeting of the County Commission, County Health Director Kristi Campbell said they anticipate they'll be open for business around Oct. 1. She said Greg Camp, county facilities manager, has already lined up contractors to begin work Monday to get the building ready.
Earlier this month, the commission approved a contract for interior painting at the new health department building.
Extreme Painting will do the work for $43,000; it will include hallways and other large common areas.
In March, commissioners approved work on a new HVAC system for the building. The work will be done through a cooperative procurement agreement through Boone County for Air Systems who will do the work for $64,480. Procurement agreements are competitively bid through another government entity and the county can piggy-back off that contract.
With flooring and lighting improvements previously approved, the total cost for the building improvements will be around $229,000. The health department anticipates receiving some federal grant money to help pay for the work.
The county is taking over the building that housed the Community Health Center on West Truman Boulevard. Community Health vacated those offices and began seeing patients May 14 at its new facility, the former Frontier building on Christy Drive.
The new Cole County Health Department will have 17,000-square-feet of space, an improvement over its current location at 1616 Industrial Drive, which is 7,700 square feet. There will also be more room for parking and a JeffTran bus stop.
The county agreed in December 2016 to buy the West Truman location for $1.5 million. It will put the Industrial Drive property up for sale after it is vacated. The county will fund the property purchase out of its reserves.
Attempts to address the need for a new county health department building date back to 2007. Citing higher-than-expected costs and the need to construct a new jail at that time, commissioners put on hold plans to renovate and expand the building on Industrial Drive.
The county budgeted $250,000 in previous half-cent sales tax money for the project, and by 2006, the cost estimate for the project was $450,000.
But cost figures began to rise, and higher-than-expected costs to replace ceilings and plumbing were among the reasons for the increases.
By the time bids were opened in March 2007, the range for the project spanned from a low of $685,000 to a high of $743,000 - not including money for new furnishings.
County Finance Officer Debbie Malzner found records that show the county paid nearly $400,000 for the current building in 1997, then spent more than $180,000 to prepare it for opening in 1999.
Since that time, county commissions have considered several potential sites for a new health department.
The most recent was the former St. Mary's Hospital property after the hospital moved to its new location on Mission Drive in 2014. The county had been looking at what it would cost to use approximately 50,000 square feet of space for the health department and other county offices, but nothing ever came of those discussions.