Photo courtesy of Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala This Sea Doo personal watercraft acquired by the Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office in 2020 and has been instrumental in a number or rescues. Because the county lacks storage facilities, currently search, rescue and patrol vehicles are stored outside year round.

EAGLE RIVER — The Board of Commissioners at its regular July meeting last Wednesday received revised plans for a garage for the Sheriff’s Office, that Sheriff Curt Pennala said will shelter the county’s assets: The patrol boat, snowmobiles, ATVs and the patrol vehicles. Currently, those items are stored outside for lack of storage.

John Paul Pietila, of Traverse Engineering Services, which is designing the structure, said the revisions include a hip roof so that the building will better fit in with the architechtural styles of the Sheriff’s Office and the courthouse, and also that the floor include tubing for future heating.

If after reviewing the revised plans, the County Board accepts them, the next step is seeking contract bids to be viewed at the Sept. board meeting.

Pietila said the plans call for can lights above each door on the front, and on the side facing the former jail, there will be one over the man door, another on the end of the side of the building, and another light on the rear of the structure. They will be operated by photocell, he said, so they will operate from dusk to dawn. Interior lighting will be LED. Plans call for the interior lights to be operated by five separate switches.

Pietila suggested the request include a completion date, using Aug. 15, 2023 as an example.

“That way, if a contractor is available for this fall, or they wanted to do the foundation and do the framing this late in the year, they could,” Pietila said. “It would give a contractor that is full for this year, but would still like to look at it, to start it next year, in June, and still complete it. It opens more options for people to look at it.”

Pietila said that suggestion was based on his having talked with a couple of contractors who said they are booked through the end of the season, so if the completion date is set for this year, they are unable to consider submitting a bid.

Budgeting is another consideration for requesting bids this summer, said Pietila.

“With the prices now days,” he said, “I think everybody knows materials are a bit of a guess, but I think you have a budget of around $500,000, plus or minus… you should plan on that amount, anyway.”

Board Commissioner Del Rajala concurred.

“As time goes on,” he said, “it’s only going to get more expensive.”

In a telephone interview with the Daily Mining Gazette the day after the board meeting, Pennala said the building will be just under 3,000 square feet, and will be constructed to the east of the Sheriff’s Office, on what is currently a parking lot.