County kicks in additional $38,820 for museum parking lot

The McLeod County Historical Society had two funding requests approved at Tuesday’s meeting of the McLeod County Board.
The County Board agreed to spend $38,820 to cover overage costs in the replacement of the parking lot at the historical society’s museum in Hutchinson.
The county had originally contributed $100,000 for the project from its capital fund.
However, once the original concrete was removed and the project was under way, numerous subsurface issues were discovered.
Dave Horrmann of Hutchinson, who sits on the historical society’s board of directors, said the subsurface of the parking lot was wet, black dirt, rather than Class 5 material. In addition, there were drainage issues and there was no reinforcing rod in the original concrete.
Horrmann said the contractor had to excavate the parking lot from two to four feet deep to pull out all the poor base material, which then had to be replaced. Drainage line also was installed to address the water issue.
“Of course, we didn’t know about this until we dug into it,” Lori Pickell-Stangel, the society’s director, told the County Board.
The total overrun was $46,323. The museum applied for, and received, a $7,500 grant from Knife River, which cut the overrun costs to $38,823. The County Board agreed Tuesday to contribute that amount, again taking the money from its capital fund.
In another topic, the historical society is seeking an additional contribution of $6,725 from the county to help fund a partnership director position. The society also will seek donations from the cities of Hutchinson and Glencoe.
Pickell-Stangel said the McLeod County Historical Society, the Glencoe Historic Preservation Society and Historic Hutchinson had formed a partnership organization, McLeod County Historical Partners, in order to capture more grant funding on a regional basis.
“It opens up another way to apply for grants,” said Pickell-Stangel.

For more, see the Aug. 5 print edition of The Chronicle.