COLUMBUS– Polk County Manager Marche Pittman has been directed by the county board of commissioners to decide what to do with a house and two buildings on Park Street.

The buildings are part of the county’s property acquired to construct a new law enforcement center. Commissioners decided a few months ago to declare the buildings as surplus and list them on govdeals.com to see if anyone would be interested in relocating the structures.

Commissioners met on Nov. 21 and heard from Pittman, who said the county received no bids.

“We had no interest so we have to pursue other methods,” Pittman told commissioners.

Commissioner Shane Bradley said he wants county fire departments to burn the buildings for training.

Commissioner Ted Owens suggested the county take out the windows before burning. Bradley said it’s better for training if the house is left intact.

Pittman said at that time he was leery about burning the buildings because of the situation at the time with the county being in an extreme drought. Bradley said the county couldn’t burn the buildings until the burn ban was lifted anyway. The burn ban was recently lifted for Polk County following rains last week and over the weekend.

Commissioner Ray Gasperson said he was concerned about burning the buildings because of what it may do to some of the trees on the property.

Pittman said he would like to get estimates on demolishing the buildings. Commissioners agreed to let the manager figure out what is best to remove the buildings from the property.

The county purchased the Park Street property, located at 221 Park St., Columbus, for $125,000 as part of the property to construct a new jail and law enforcement center. The county also purchased just over 19 acres directly behind the Park Street property for $1,950,000. Part of the 19-acre sale was for the property to be developed for construction. The development of the property is expected to be complete by Dec. 15 with plans to immediately begin construction of the building. Commissioners also awarded a construction bid to Cooper Construction last month for just over $9.6 million. Construction is expected to take a year. Commissioners held a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 3.