Throughout the year, there has been one consistent agenda item for each Kalona City Council meeting: the new community center project. According to Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh, the timeline for the construction of the building is starting to come into focus. He says, “We’re finishing up our budgeting, our cost estimates on the numbers, and we hope to have the plans and specs in front of the council in very early 2017. We are finishing up the bid documents right now as well. We’ll meet as a building committee, and then we’ll present those to council for their recommendation to go out to bid. So our goal is to bid it in January and February of 2017, with construction and demolition starting in late February, March, or very early April.” Schlabaugh adds, there will be multiple bid packages, but he assumes the construction and demolition will be contained in the same package and will be completed by one company. The total cost estimate for the project is $4.3 million.