There will be no police department addition built in Stanley this year but there might be soon. This was the substance of remarks by Project Engineer Corey Scheidler of Cedar Corporation at the Tuesday September 8 City Council meeting. Scheidler, who has overseen the plans for the police addition until recently, was there to advise the city council on what could happen if the City of Stanley takes over project administration of the police addition from Cedar and goes ahead with revisions to the current plans, which would need state approval. The city council later approved spending $9,850 on design fees and $150 on state review fees for the revised plans during its regular meeting.

“The only thing that’s going to be done is the plan and whatever technical specifications need to be updated,” Scheidler said of the council decision. If the revised plans are next approved in October or November, bidding on the new police addition could start as early as late December to early January, with allowances made to avoid holiday delays. Before the decisions were made Alderwoman Holly Kitchell and other council members had some questions for Scheidler at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Corey, I have some questions,” Kitchell made known to the Cedar Corp representative. “So the revised or the new documents that were sent to (City Administrator-Clerk-Treasurer) Donelle (Spaulding). The sections that are in here talk about—and anyone else can input too–it talks about doing design work for what would be the large meeting room which is currently where the officer’s offices are.”

“Correct,” Scheidler confirmed.

Photo by

Joseph Back.

“Personally I don’t think that needs to be part of this,” Kitchell said. “I think we can take care of that piece on our own, unless we need to figure out exiting.”

“The exiting you have to have state approval for,” Scheidler told Kitchell. “So what we talked about last time is that you get your state approval if you didn’t do the work with this current project, perhaps if you wanted to bid it as an alternate.”

Currently tentative revisions as revealed at the August 17 council meeting include turning the present police department offices into a meeting room, along with eliminating a 623 square foot second floor and establishing a secure limited access entryway, police offices being moved into the addition.

In response to Kitchell’s questioning, Scheidler directed the council to the League of Municipalities for unbiased research and went on to say that if not included with the current addition plans, converting the present police quarters into a meeting room could be approved with a one-year timetable, plus one or two extensions on this figure. There were also HVAC changes that would need to be approved with the addition. Meanwhile, there were financial details to consider Specifically, an older document signed by former Mayor Norm Christianson and dated for March 24, 2020 listed a lump sum of $21,000 for bidding and contract administration services. There was a new and additional figure for this in the revised police addition plans, but no contract administration had taken place of yet. “And I apologize, I’m putting you on the spot.” Kitchell told Scheidler. The Cedar Corp representative answered that he had put in bidding and administration costs for the project with the last contract in May. Kent Barby spoke up next.

“I think what she’s asking is the contract administration for $16,000, and it’s 18,500,” he said.

“Well that’s part of what I’m asking.” Kitchell said, going on to clarify with Barby that her credentials were the same as Scheidler’s. The $16,000 hadn’t been paid, which led Kitchell to believe hadn’t been done yet, a belief Scheidler confirmed.

“My question is two-fold,” Kitchell said. “it feels like it would be twice we’d be paying for it, but we’ve only gone through it once.” Barby chimed in with clarity.

“We haven’t paid the $16,000, and that goes away,” Barby said of the old contract administration figure in question, next directing a question of his own to the Cedar Corp representative. “Why is the bidding so high when we’ve already gone through that?” he asked, being answered that there was a need to go through and update the front end document of the project, along with rising construction prices this spring.

“I don’t know if we’re going to bid it in 20 or 20-21,” Scheidler said of the police addition. In addition, the City will need to pull in civil engineer, structural engineer, electrical and plumbing to be revised, all of which will add to costs.

“I tried to get that down as low as I could,” Scheidler told Barby of the figure. Kitchell sought confirmation, however.

“I’m sorry, so I just want to make sure that’s a correct statement. So what Kent said, the $16,000, that goes away?” Kitchell asked, receiving an affirmative answer from Scheidler. “What’s your definition of ‘conceptual design’?” Kitchell asked next of a phrase in Second two of the revised plans.

“Oh, that should have just been design,” Scheidler said. “That was a carryover from the original contract.” If the City of Stanley decided to proceed by itself, the design fee as stated would be $9,850, with state review fees tacked on of $150, possible seeing a slight increase. More discussion followed, but Kitchell still had points to make.

“So if we read our statutes, it talks about how we are bound to bid out projects, to do public bid,” she said, pulling out a massive plastic ring binder detailing city ordinances to illustrate her point.

“So it talks about in our Purchasing, it says purchases over $25,000, pursuant to subsection ‘a’ above, shall be made by formal bid unless exempted from it by action of the council or if not required by the Wisconsin statutes,” she read. Part of the hurdle to getting local contractors she said were processes like getting performance and payment bonds, a point Scheidler cautioned the city on.

“I would never advise one of our municipal clients to proceed without that,” he said of requiring payment bonds on a project. Later on, Kevin Hendrickson had a question: what did the Building Committee think? Mark Fitzsimmons gave some input.

“We’d actually have to see the numbers…My thought is… I don’t know what the construction costs are going to be in spring. This current point we’re looking at a real bad spot, and we may get better just in materials,” he said of waiting. Kitchell disagreed.

“I think the dollars is what’s up for discussion right now,” she said, saying the schedule was good. Barby offered his thoughts as well. “Does $9,850 get us to the point where this is ready for a submittal.

“Yes,” Kitchell and Scheidler answered in unison. The city would have to decide who the responsible party is if they choose to pull Cedar from the project and administrate it themselves.

With a motion by Barby seconded by Kitchell the recommendation was made to approve $9,850 in design fees and $150 in state review fees. Later during the regular meeting, the recommendation was officially passed with a motion by Fitzsimmons seconded by Barby.

Holly Kitchell makes a point at the Tuesday September 8 meeting, as Corey Scheidler of Cedar Corporation sits in the foreground.