Valley County will spend up to $250,000 remodeling a former escrow office in downtown Cascade into office space for county employees.
The work, authorized by the Board of County Commissioners on Monday, will convert the former AmeriTitle building at 700 S. Main St., now known as the Cascade Annex, into a new home for three county departments.
The county used federal funding in 2024 to buy the building for $3.3 million. The purchase came shortly after the county completed a master facilities plan that recommended expanding the Valley County Courthouse to add office space as soon as 2026—a project the plan estimated could cost up to $23.4 million.
Remodeling the Cascade Annex likely eliminates the need for the courthouse expansion, though Valley County Clerk Doug Miller said the northern portion of the building will likely need work in the future.
“It is well-documented that the north end is in very poor condition,” Miller said.
The 13,000-square-foot Annex will be remodeled to add office space, public service counters, conference rooms, and disabled access. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing upgrades are also included in the remodel.
The work is expected to be complete by mid-September, at which point the county’s Planning and Zoning Department, Building Department, and assessor’s office will move into the building.
A space in the basement of the building that has housed the county prosecutor’s office since 2022 will also be remodeled for continued use as the prosecutor’s office. The space was leased from AmeriTitle for $2,500 per month until the county bought the building.
AmeriTitle sold the building to the county last year after moving into its new location at 21 River District Dr. in southern Cascade.
AG complaint
The remodel contract was awarded to Pacific West Construction of McCall after a controversial public bidding process that led to a complaint filed with the Idaho Office of the Attorney General.
In May, the county commissioners rejected a $451,000 bid for the work from Dalrymple Construction Services of McCall. Commissioner Neal Thompson then negotiated with Pac-West owner Justin Kunde to submit a proposal for the project at a meeting last week.
A letter sent to Attorney General Raúl Labrador by the Idaho Associated General Contractors called that process into question by suggesting the county was “dividing up the project into smaller pieces” to circumvent state law governing public works projects.
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The county commissioners rebutted that claim in a response letter that cited a state law that provides flexibility to counties to seek alternative proposals after a public bidding process is completed.
It is unclear if the attorney general’s office plans to begin an investigation as requested by the complaint. A spokesperson for Labrador did not respond to Valley Lookout’s request for comment.
Commissioners divided by unusual process
The unusual process was acknowledged by commissioners before they received the Associated Contractors’ complaint letter.
“This has been way outside the scope of what the county would normally do and how we would do this process,” said Sherry Maupin, who chairs the board, during a June 9 meeting.
Thompson, who solicited Pacific West to submit a proposal for the remodel, worried rebidding the project could delay the project from being completed this year.
“Right now, we’re at the eleventh hour and need to get this project going and get this done,” Thompson said.
Katlin Caldwell, the third commissioner on the board, was opposed to using the unconventional process but ultimately voted in favor of awarding the contract to Pacific West on Monday.
“I just think there’s quite a lack of transparency here,” Caldwell said during a June 9 meeting. “I understand the need to move forward, but I don’t think we need to rush it.”
Consultant errors
Caldwell also took issue with apparent errors made by consultants in preparing documents for the public bidding process.
Joseph Dalyrmple, the owner of the one company that submitted a bid for the work, told the county commissioners that his bid for the work was “probably $100,000 fat” due to information missing from the bid manual.
“Without any specifications on what you want, we went to the extreme on what the rules and regulations would require for us to bring it up to code,” Dalrymple told the commissioners during a May 27 meeting.
The bid manual was assembled by Clearwater Financial and Erstad, a Boise architectural firm. The county paid about $47,000 for the work.
“I would like to see Clearwater and erstad do the job we hired them to do,” Caldwell said.
Thompson agreed with Caldwell’s criticisms of the companies, but sided with Maupin on how to address them.
“I do think that we can deal with that separately,” Maupin said. “We have ongoing work with them, so we can hold them accountable through that avenue also.”
