The Williams County Commission heard an update on the new Youth Assessment Center and approved a proposal by the information technology department to begin converting the county's hardware system during its meeting Thursday morning.
Jeff Morrau of the architectural firm Artekta Inc. of Jamestown gave an update on the youth center.
"The corners of the site need to be staked and the site needs to be 100 percent prepped by Sept. 21. We shouldn't have a problem with that," said Morrau.
Morrau had a series of meetings during the rest of the day, among them with staff at the current YAC, center director Marsha Hughes and with Ebel Telecom to hear a proposal for the new building's security system. Morrau added the bid opening for the new building is at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22. A meeting is at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23, to award the big..
"It shouldn't take too long, probably 10 or 15 minutes," said commission Chair Dan Kalil.
Morrau said the commission should have a good variety of choices in the bidding.
"Excitement should be high. We have about 33 various offers so far. We rarely see so many until about four or five days before we open the bids. We should have no problem finding something we like through these bids," said Morrau.
He added the building permit for the new center should be in by Oct. 1. Morrau also said there currently is a slight infringement over the property line by neighbors that needs to be addressed before construction begins.
It was decided by the commission that a few polite phone calls could be made and some letters sent to inform residents.
In an unrelated matter, the commission voted to approve a proposal by Information Technology director Jerry Herman to begin converting the county's taxation and payroll hardware system.
Herman spoke to the commission at the Sept. 1 meeting, requesting to proceed with the conversion process. Herman said it should take up to two years to complete the in-house conversion of the county's AS400 system over to newer programming.
Herman also requested to promote one of his employees, Justin Parkinson, to help him develop the new system, and to hire a new employee to focus on the daily IT work. He said having Parkinson help with the development would make it almost impossible to do the daily work.
He added that with carryover funds from the previous year, it should be able to cover the cost of a new hire.
After some brief questioning, the commission unanimously approved the requests.
In other business, the commission:
Voted to approve a list of federal aid projects presented by Williston Public Works Director Monte Meiers for county roadwork in 2010. The list was approved unanimously.
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