Commissioners receive three bids for Seneca County Dog Warden’s Office project
[Tiffin, OH – Oct. 20, 2022] – The Seneca County Board of Commissioners received three bids Thursday morning for a project to add a structure at the Seneca County Dog Warden’s Office.
The sally port structure addition to the building is to be paid for with strictly non-General Funds.
The commissioners credited Seneca County Dog Warden Kelly Marker for her fiscal responsibility for saving non-General Funds generated not through taxes but through fees over the past several years.
The project architect, RCM Architects, estimated the cost of the project at $414,930.
The bids received were as follows:
• ACI Construction, of Alvada, for $535,000.
• Clouse Construction, of New Riegel, for $357,056.
• Helms Construction, of Findlay, for $437,000.
The work is expected to be completed within about four months, according to bids.
In other action, the commissioners continued discussion on capital improvement project priorities and learned of some updated cost estimates for projects that have increased significantly.
County Building and Grounds Maintenance Supervisor John Logsdon started the discussion by updating the commissioners on work being done at the Seneca County Services Building. The CSB is home to the Seneca County Board of Elections, Seneca Regional Planning Commission, Seneca County General Health District and more.
In early 2022, the commissioners entered a contract with Studer-Obringer, of New Washington, after the company bid $702,000 for the project to rebuild the health department entrance and the pre-1865 wall. This bid was much lower than the engineer’s estimate of $950,000 for the project.
Logsdon said a couple of issues have been discovered through the construction of the project, including some stability issues with the wall and a vent pipe for the sewage system needing to be moved away from the new entrance of the building. These costs are expected to tack on about $77,000 and $13,000 to the project.
Logsdon said this is typical for projects dealing with older buildings and structures. He also said that the timeline for work has been extended and crews hope work can be completed by Spring 2023.
The commissioners also discussed the replacement of the HVAC system, the addition of a dehumidification system and the complete rewiring of the Seneca County Museum.
The board’s capital project priority list had about $100,000 set aside for the HVAC work, with no cost estimate for rewiring. On Thursday, County Administrator Jaime Wolfe said the costs for this project could be closer to $700,000.
The commissioners discussed how this increased price tag and the increased cost of all projects could impact the scope and size of different capital projects, but each of the board members also expressed continued support for investing in capital needs around the county.
Among the biggest of those needs, as evidenced by its first-place listing in the county’s capital project list, is the addition of a new Agricultural Services Building. Just like the museum project, Wolfe said cost estimates for this and for the addition of a joint EMS/EMA and storage facility south of town, have come in much higher than initially expected. The Ag building had a general cost estimate of about $2.5 million, while more recent estimates put the project at around $4.6 million. While the new storage/public safety building was expected to be close to $1 million, the latest estimate is about $2.9 million.
Commissioner Anthony Paradiso said that the county is still committed to using one-time federal funding for capital improvements, but added that the increased costs make it so the commissioners must be nimble and adaptable. It could mean not as many projects are completed, or that those projects may need to be reduced.
He also mentioned working hard to receive state, federal and local charitable dollars for these projects as a way to keep them moving forward.
Paradiso said the commissioners would continue these discussions in the coming weeks and that decisions on capital improvement projects will also tie into budget discussions as officials prepare for 2023.
In other business, Commissioner Tyler Shuff said that the office had already received six applications for the county’s façade enhancement program that was announced last month. See program details and an application to learn more: http://senecacountyohio.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Seneca-County-Facade-Enhancement-Program-006.pdf
During new business, the commissioners approved all appropriations and resolutions from the agenda.