Bureau awards $1.7 million bid for new office building

Friday, March 19, 2004
A new U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office will replace a 70-year-old building in McCook that once served as a dance hall. (Bruce Crosby/McCook Daily Gazette)

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has awarded a $1,763,260 contract to build an 11,000 square-foot, single-story office building for for the Bureau of Reclamation in McCook, Bureau Commissioner John Keys announced on Friday.

In addition to office space for employees of Reclamation's McCook Field Office, the building will house the control center that is used to operate 15 dams and reservoirs in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado.

The small-business contract was awarded to Midwest Construction Services of Ralston. It will be a conventional construction frame building built adjacent to the existing office building. Work is expected to begin in middle-to-late April.

The existing structure was built more than 70 years ago. Over the years, it has been used for various purposes, including a dance hall. It was purchased by the bureau in the 1950s, remodeled and expanded and has served hundreds of reclamation workers since.

The building now has a number of structural and maintenance problems. Once the new building is completed, the old structure will be demolished.

Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 western states. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation and fish and wildlife benefits.

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