County Commissioners met for a special meeting Dec. 7 to discuss funding for several capital projects.

After a few hours of discussion, commissioners settled on:

• new gymnasium at the Juvenile Detention Center using $1.5 million of the department’s reserves and applying for a $1.5 million state loan;
• new roof on the Four Seasons and Exhibition Hall using $1.957 million in ARPA funds and $691,963.24 in one-time federal Local and Tribal Consistency funds, which were also part of COVID relief legislation, toward the estimated $3 million project at Montana Expo Park;
• remodel booking area and establish drunk tank area at the Adult Detention Center using $600,000 in ARPA funds and $400,000 in sheriff’s office reserves; and
• new generator for the Courthouse Annex, where many county offices are housed, using $225,000 of ARPA funds and $75,000 of departmental reserves.

The approved projects zero out unallocated on time federal funds through ARPA and the one time congressional appropriations, according to county documents.

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Commissioner Joe Briggs had recommended using $300,000 of ARPA funds for the annex generator, leaving $77,296.65 in the commission’s reserves for the downtown campus.

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski asked to change that to use $75,000 of reserves toward the project, leaving $2,296.65, saying she believed if anything went wrong with their downtown campus, they’d be able to find money elsewhere.

On the Four Seasons and Exhibition Hall roof, Susan Shannon said that 60 percent of their calendar is full in those facilities for the year. Shannon is the Expo Park manager.

She told commissioners that 80 percent of Expo Park’s interim revenue comes from those facilities, and during the state fair, 30 percent of the total revenue comes from events in those venues.

Les Payne, county public works director, said that the roof project had been on their radar for awhile and they’d been making repairs regularly.

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Payne said that the project was discussed several years ago and he was told it would be funded, so his department bid the project with an estimated $2 million budget.

The first round only garnered two bids, which were over budget.

The county put the project off for awhile and rebid it last year, receiving six bids, but the costs had increased.

Payne said that’s why he was asking to budget $3 million for the project.

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He said that then there’s issues with water from the roof getting onto the basketball floor in that venue, the whole state hears about it and the county could risk losing major tournament if the issues isn’t addressed.

The new gymnasium at the Juvenile Detention Center has also been discussed for awhile and during the budget process, commissioners authorized a geotechnical survey of the site before moving forward with new construction.

Shanna Bulik-Chism, JDC director, told commissioners that the gym would allow space for indoor fitness activities, other small group activities and overflow capacity.

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Her department has put $1.5 million in to reserves in anticipation of the project and commissioners approved applying for a $1.5 million intercap loan through the Montana Board of Investments to finance the rest of the project with her budget taking on the loan’s debt service.

The county has used the MBOA loans for other major projects, including the county courthouse roof and the new grandstands at Montana Expo Park.

Payne told commissioners that the TD&H did the geotechnical survey and determined the project could be done and make recommendations for the foundation type.

Commissioners also discussed repairing the roof and installing a new HVAC system at the courthouse annex, where their offices are, but decided to wait on those and only install a generator at the annex since the county’s entire network runs through the annex and an outage impacts all departments, including public safety, Briggs said.

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Payne said the annex projects have also been on the list for awhile, but the previous public works director had plans to remodel the old Tribune building across the street and move offices into that building, but plans had since changed.

At the Adult Detention Center, Sheriff Jesse Slaughter and Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken said that they wanted to remodel the booking area, which is out of date and a safety concern.

Van Dyken said the booking area dates to the original building when it opened in the 1990s.

He told commissioners that they wanted to reallocate some ARPA funds that had been designated for a second floor railing that the previous undersheriff wanted but current officials have deemed unnecessary and of lesser need than remodeling the booking area.

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In their plan, they’d raise the booking platform, providing more security for booking officers, and raise the ceiling to install cameras since some areas of booking aren’t visible to officers at the desk.

They’re also planning to add what is essentially a drunk tank area to the booking area during the project, Slaughter and Van Dyken said.

Slaughter and Van Dyken estimated the project at $1 million and asked for the additional ARPA funds to lessen the impact on their reserve fund.

Commissioners and staff spent time discussing plans for the Meals on Wheels space before realizing they’d already budgeted $50,000 toward a study of plans for that project.