The Dallas County Auditor’s Office will soon be moving much of their election equipment to a new County-owned satellite facility, located at 910 Court Street in Adel. However, before they can do so the building has to be renovated to fit their needs.

The Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead to work with a local contractor on the project. While there was no official bidding process because the cost fell under the bid requirement threshold, the County still sought quotes from a few construction companies to both gauge their interest and get an idea of the actual price tag. The Facilities Department also offered two possible plans for the contractors to work from. At the most recent Supervisors meeting, the quotes were considered, but there was an additional wrinkle: one of the contractors proposed a third option that took the more expensive but more practical choice, and changed some things to make it more cost-effective.

The contractor, Harney Commercial Construction from Madrid, had previously worked with the Auditor’s Office in installing an awning at their main building. Their representatives were on hand for the meeting to present the proposed third option, which includes running electrical through the ceiling instead of the floor, and had a quoted price of around $121,000. The Supervisors gave consensus for a contract to be drafted with Harney, which will be considered at their next meeting. The construction would then start quickly, as Auditor Julia Helm would like the building to be ready to move into prior to the primary election in June.