The exact costs of two projects involving a county museum and park have been revealed, and the same company will be doing the work on both.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners accepted the sole bid for work to be done to build a wall at Baker Arena in Johnson County Park, and a separate bid to build storage for the Johnson County Museum at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.
CDW Sneed Company will manage the work for both projects. The arena will cost $48,114, and the storage facility will cost $97,850. CDW was the only company to bid on the arena project, and had the lowest complete bid for the storage facility.
Both projects have been needed for a long time, county officials have said.
Baker Arena is getting a wall on the south side. The arena is the site of more than 30 horse shows annually at Johnson County Park. The added wall would enclose the arena, which would offer more climate control and possibly attract more horse shows to the park, said Megan Bowman, Johnson County Park superintendent.
Currently, curtains enclose the arena, but those curtains are failing and county leaders learned in meetings with horse enthusiast groups that the move would make the arena more attractive, Johnson County Commissioner Brian Baird has said.
At the Johnson County Museum of History, leaders have been collecting artifacts to use in exhibits at the museum for nearly 100 years, and curators are running of out space for the artifacts.
The museum currently has about 60,000 donated items, but has limited room to collect more items from recent history, which the museum needs for future exhibits, said David Pfeiffer, director of the Johnson County Museum of History.
The Johnson County Historical Society, which is a nonprofit organization with a mission to collect and preserve items from the county’s history, is funding the 1,700-square-foot building at the fairgrounds.
