During its meeting Tuesday night, the Grundy County Board approved a $10 million plan for a new 18,000-square-foot health department building next to the current Grundy County Administration Building on School Street in Morris.

Craig Meadows, an architect with Studio GC, presented the board with the plan, which creates extra space for behavior health, nursing, senior health, building services, the Grundy Kendall Regional Office of Education, environmental health, administration, the Veterans Assistance Commission and an additional public space.

Studio GC is working with Narvick Bros.

“We know there’s a $10 million limit on the budget, so we are sticking within that,” Meadows said. “We reviewed various goals associated with the project. The primary one for the renovation is that we are trying to accommodate as much work as possible and adhering as closely to the original plan as possible, but our primary goal at this point in time is to get a new Grundy County building, which we’re targeting at approximately $8 million.”

The county originally had gotten a plan from Kluber Architects but has since switched to Studio GC to keep the total cost in line with expectations. Meadows said this means that Studio GC could analyze parts of the former plan.

Meadows highlighted a new site layout with improved parking access for the staff and public, and the new layout keeps portions of the site open in case the county ever decides it wants to expand.

“We really wanted to simplify the layout in the structure to keep it as cost-effective as possible,” Meadows said. “The other thing about this layout is it allows for a greater opportunity for exterior windows, which is important for people and patients and others that visit this facility.”

Grundy County Board Chairman Chris Balkema said the county wants to pay cash on this project as it continues to work its way out of its 40-year debt.

“We lowered taxes between 2018 and 2022, and we had a slight hiccup last year,” Balkema said. “We’re going to continue to push hard on tax reduction going forward, and we’ve got to balance that with the needs of the county all the way from infants through the health department all the way to seniors.

“We have to make sure that while we have population growth in the county, which is unusual, this is a necessary step that we will pay cash for, and that there are no change orders.”

This project will be paid for partially using the $7 million that Grundy County received as part of the American Rescue Plan. The rest of the project will be paid for in cash.

As it stands, the plan is to have the design and development finished by July, and construction should be ready to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025.