Montevideo, Minnesota, bank building not the likely solution for Chippewa County facilities needs

Tom Cherveny, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·3 min read

Jul. 20—MONTEVIDEO

— Purchasing and renovating the

MinnWest Bank building in downtown Montevideo

is not looking like the affordable solution it was hoped to jointly house the operations of Chippewa County's Family Services and the Prairie Five Community Action.

It may not be the solution for just the Family Services operations, either.

While the building's "overall structural condition is good," there are significant space and costly construction needs required for the proposed uses, according to information provided to the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners on July 18.

Erik Daniels, project manager with

Klein McCarthy Architects

, and team members outlined the challenges in renovating the building. No cost estimates are available at this time.

The commissioners asked for cost estimates on two different options for renovating the building to hold the Family Service operations only. The options range in the extent of renovations.

The first challenge the building poses is the available space of 9,178 square feet on the lower level and 9,297 square feet on the upper level. It would be possible to shoehorn Family Services and Prairie Five into that space, with each entity on a separate floor, according to the information.

Doing so would require replacing staff offices with small cubicles, which raises privacy and confidentiality issues, among other concerns. Both organizations would need to rely on off-site space for group meetings.

Prairie Five,

a private nonprofit agency

offering programs ranging from aging services and meals to transportation and child care, would not be able to house either its kitchen or nutrition programs at the site.

Prairie Five serves five western Minnesota counties: Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift and Yellow Medicine.

"This is a very compromised plan," said Daniels. "There's a significant compromise here."

The building could be renovated to accommodate either Family Services or Prairie Five as the only occupant, but space issues would remain. Family Services would need to replace many of its offices with cubicles.

In addition to space concerns, there would be a need to upgrade the electrical and cooling systems to accommodate a larger number of building occupants. Family Services has a workforce of 45 and Prairie Five has 35 employees, or roughly three or four times the number of current occupants in the building.

There would be a need to replace the building's elevator, which is not operational and may not be large enough. It may be possible to save the cost of installing a fire sprinkler system, but doing so would add lots of costs for enclosing hallways and adding fire-rated doors and walls to meet current codes, according to Daniels.

There are plenty of other costs as well, from making restrooms compliant with the

Americans with Disabilities Act

to installing a new security system. Much of the building was constructed in the 1980s, and energy and other codes are much more demanding today, according to the presentation.

Daniels told the commissioners that Klein McCarthy held off on developing cost estimates until the commissioners decided on at least two of the four different options presented. He cautioned that any price estimates at this point are difficult due to market conditions.

"The market is just, compared to what we're used to, way out of whack," he explained.

The commissioners made no decisions, but their conversation on the issues included the possibility of taking a new look at renovating the current building housing the two entities.