Plans and specifications were approved by the Coon Rapids City Council Aug. 16 for a city’s recycling center expansion project.
The council action authorized bids with results to be presented to the council for approval at its Sept. 20 meeting.
High usage and a small facility footprint prompted recycling center staff to identify the need to better manage materials and site circulation, Public Works Director Tim Himmer said.
But the city has had to scale back the project from what it initially envisioned - one planned new building has been eliminated - when the 2020 Minnesota Legislature allocated $316,000 in state bonding money to the expansion because of supply chain issues and dramatic construction cost increases.
“It has taken quite a while to get here,”, Himmer said.
The project now includes a new 2,600 square-foot heated building that will provide inside storage for Styrofoam storage and processing, space for a forklift and bays for pallets of recycled newspapers and cardboard.
“These are all outside right now,” Himmer said.
The building will also have a 10-foot bay with an outside door specifically for paint reuse, a new program that started in February, he said.
“It has been so popular,” said Recycling Coordinator Colleen Sinclair, who is currently investigating expanding the reuse program to include other items.
The paint cans are currently kept in a storage trailer which is not heated, so the paint freezes in the winter and cannot be reused.
In addition, the existing office building will be remodeled to create a breakroom for staff, relocate the cash register area and provide an enclosed awning for the paper shredding machines, Himmer said.
The project will also enhance traffic flow and parking with curb and gutter plus storm drain and sanitary sewer improvements.
“We are very excited by the expansion project,” Sinclair said.
Council Member Kari Rehrauer said the expansion project is needed because the “recycling center is busy all the time.”
The project has a budget of $633,000, but the state bonding dollars, via the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, are not paid in advance, Himmer said. They are reimbursable once the project is completed
The city has also received a $47,884.60 grant from Anoka County specifically for the reuse room, including engineering, staking, testing and project management costs.
These are additional state Select Committee on Recycling and Environment funds passed on by the county and are in addition to the annual SCORE operating grant received from the county, according to Sinclair.
“Anoka County has requested cities investigate and provide additional resources in the area of reuse at local recycling facilities,” Sinclair said.
There is money in the city’s facilities construction fund to pay the balance of the cost, Himmer said.
While the engineering work (traffic flow and parking) was completed in-house, Kinghorn Construction was hired by the city to prepare the plans and specifications and it worked with Lampert, an architectural firm, Himmer said.
Kinghorn is also construction manager for the project and is involved in the bidding process, which will have bids/contracts on 11 elements of the project, not one overall contract, he said. Once the bids are approved by the council, initial work will first focus on the traffic flow/parking improvements, then remodeling the office area.
Construction on the new building is dependent on availability of materials, but he hopes the entire project can be completed by the summer of 2023, Himmer said.
The recycling center, located at the city public works garage on 111th Avenue off Hanson Boulevard, is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and from 1-7 p.m. Wednesdays through September. The October through March hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.