ESU 8 Celebrates Neligh Chamber Ribbon Cutting

Educational Service Unit 8 and the Neligh Chamber of Commerce celebrated the opening of the newly remodeled building on Thursday with an official ribbon cutting.

While giving a tour of the newly-renovated Educational Service Unit 8 in Neligh, administrator Bill Mowinkel couldn’t hide his excitement on Thursday afternoon. He and the ESU 8 staff members are excited about the newly-renovated space.

“I’m tickled to death with it,” Mowinkel said. “Our staff is just ecstatic. Every one of them that comes over has said, ‘Wow! It even exceeds our expectations.’ I think it’s hard to visualize just how massive it really is until you’re in it.”

Mowinkel said the best part of the project is the ability “to get everyone back under one roof.”

“The best part about getting everyone back under one roof is for collaboration and team unity,” he said. “We used to be in the same building and we would meet regularly for break or whatever. During construction, we had to schedule a place to have a team meeting.”

Aside from their furniture being delivered, Mowinkel said the renovated building is ready for occupancy.

“It’s just basically painting and touch up work,” he said. “The renovation project back here was pretty extreme. We literally got rid of the old Christiansen building to make our conference center.”

Mowinkel said the $4.388 million project really got underway after the former Brian Christiansen — or more recently, Bearinger Tax— building behind the ESU was purchased and demolition began in September of 2017. The ESU8 board gave its approval months prior.

“We had an 18-month contract,” he said. “Probably in the fall of 2017 is when we really thought it was going to become a reality,” he said. “All of 2018 was construction and the finish work in 2019.”

Unlike most major renovations to educational buildings, this project did not need to be funded by a bond. Mowinkel is grateful to the foresight of previous administration and board members.

“It never could’ve happened if Don Thompson and that board from 20-30 years ago wouldn’t have started this fund,” he said.

Because of the fund, Mowinkel said they had money available; however, the legislature now limits their cash reserve, making them unable to accumulate money for such a project.

“That’s why we had to get the attorney general involved,” he said. “To say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this money. This is our plan. Will you approve that for us?’ He told us yes, but that we had a limited time to get it done. That gave me a push. That’s when Senator Baker became involved and worked with us, making sure we dotted those Is and crossed those Ts.”

Mowinkel said the ESU8 board set a limit of $5 million for the project and the bid came under budget, allowing them to finish the top floor and purchase new furniture and appliances.

“We bid the first time ourselves, without construction management involved, and all of the bids were well over $5 to $6 million,” he said. “It lowered the cost by about 25 percent to bring on construction management.”

Radec Construction of Hartington served as construction management company for the project. Mowinkel said he was pleased with the company and the large number of local subcontractors they brought on board for the project.

“I was thrilled with Radec — and the amount of what I call local subs — subs within our seven-county area that we serve,” he said.

Five subcontractors were from a 15-mile radius, including Clearwater, Neligh and Tilden.​