The bids are in and now the work begins for the construction manager of a $4 million adolescent treatment center project in Winnebago.

Mark Mensing of United Builders in Blue Earth says 65 bids were received for sections of the project that include mechanical and electrical, plumbing, concrete and site development work.

He says a staff of three will qualify the bids, determining if they have met certain specifications.

“We have a lot of work to do, but we’ll have them ready for the board by Tuesday,” Mensing says.

The United Hospital District board is scheduled to hold a special meeting Tuesday to consider recommendations from United Builders.

Mensing says construction is expected to begin later this month or early August, with a completion date of May 2010.

UHD administrator Jeff Lang says there will be a ground-breaking ceremony for the new facility at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 4 in Winnebago and the public is invited.

Officials aren’t waiting until the new treatment center is completed to begin looking for uses of the current building.

Lang says Go Minnesota executive director Doug Uhrhammer — a private economic development group in Faribault County — has already started exploring options.

“I’m very optimistic if there is a potential use for it, he’ll find it,” Lang says. “It’s a good, quality building. But, it’s also a challenging building. It was built to be a hospital.”

Uhrhammer says he’s contacted officials at the Department of Employment and Economic Development to find out what other rural cities have done in the past.

“We’re trying to generate as many ideas as we can. You have to turn over every rock to see what option fits best for the building,” he says.In another matter, the board accepted a bid of $409,000 from Helipad Systems for the ‘helistop’ to be located on the roof of the hospital addition.

The amount is less than the original anticipated cost of $600,000.

The ‘helistop’ will include de-icing and fire safety systems.

“It will have everything we need to land a helicopter on our building,” says Lang.

Bids for the hospital campus expansion project are expected to be opened at the end of this month.