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Jasper County, IA

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Jasper County Office Building Project to cut costs and consolidate buildings

Jasper County is holding a special election on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021 to issue general obligation bonds or general obligation capital loan notes not to exceed $3,600,000. Because of Jasper County’s low debt this bond can be passed without raising the debt service levy past the current rate and still be debt free in 6 years.

The purpose of this bond issue is to conduct a remodel and addition to the building that the County acquired last year at 315 W 3rd St. N. The project, if passed by the citizens of Jasper County, will consolidate the Annex Building and rented building that currently houses the Board of Health, Community Development and Environmental Health.

Once the project is completed the new building, The Jasper County Administrative Building, will house County Treasurer, DMV, Community Development, Environmental Health, CICS (MH/DS), Veteran Affairs, Human Resources, Public Health, Jasper County Economic Development, Genealogy, DHS, DCS and JCS. There will also be a large conference room and the building will have a backup generator enabling this conference room to be used as a charging station for medical devices in the case of a widespread outage event such as the derecho that hit Jasper County this past August.

This new administrative building will be more energy efficient, consolidate current county buildings lowering maintenance costs and get rid of the Annex building and its looming millions of capital projects. Most importantly Jasper County will be able to pass this bond issue WITHOUT raising the debt service levy and the County will still be debt free in 6 years.

Jasper County’s proposed office building renovation and addition seeks to provide office space for county and state employees serving Jasper County as well as amenities for the public. 315 West 3rd Street North currently sits vacant with a large, underutilized parking lot. This project proposes to upgrade not only the building, but also the site, to be a public amenity and sustainable building.

Departments will be housed in acoustically separated suites. The entrances to each department are highlighted in a black wood mirroring the exterior entrances. 6 super graphics (conceptually shown below) line the corridors celebrating elements and aspirations from across Jasper County. A large conference room provides ample space for both employee and public uses. The entire building will be equipped with back-up power. In an emergency power outage the conference room could be utilized as an emergency location for charging or powering life-dependent items.

Adequate parking for citizens and staff use of the building. The additional green space will house a geothermal well-field that provides heating to the building in a sustainable manner. This green space opens many opportunities for future public use. The exterior of the building will be modified to maximize daylight indoors. Entrances of the building will be accented to provide a visual way-finding language that is continued inside.