Richland County commissioners review bids for courthouse renovations
Richland County could be paying nearly one-third less than estimated to repurpose the former county jail space on the L2 level of the county courthouse into offices for the Clerk of Courts and conference space for county operations. All three bids opened by the County Commissioners on Thursday were at least 20% under the project engineer’s $2.25 million estimate.
Studer-Obringer Inc. of New Washington was the apparent low bidder at $1,560,000, which was 30.6% under the estimate. The other bids were $1,758,000 from 2K General Company Inc. of Delaware, Ohio, which was 21.8% lower than the estimate, and $1,765,000 from Adena Corp. of Mansfield, which was 21.5% below estimate.
Craig Christie of Karpinski Engineering of Cleveland, who was part of the project design team, said the bids may have been the result of the seasonal change in the construction industry. “I wonder if people may be looking for inside work, which this is a perfect project for that,” he said. “Winter is coming on and they’re finishing up some outdoor stuff and sometimes you get a good price.”
Brad Maurer of Maurer Architectural Design (MAD) Studio LLC of Mansfield, the lead designer, said he was “a little bit” surprised at the lower figures, noting that estimating the cost of construction of a renovation is not easy. “We have a lot of factors going in a direction that seem to be elevating our estimates so we did take some of that into account. Prices are going up. Labor costs are going up. So we acted accordingly,” he explained.
Mears asks if project might include 'surprises'
Maurer said the design team also was concerned about repairing cracks and trenches in the flooring as well as the addition of new technology and furnishings.
Commissioners’ chairman Cliff Mears asked if the design team was “comfortable” with the project or if there could be any “surprises” they might come across that could impact the cost, given that the building is more than 50 years old.
“It’s (L2) is pretty much gutted so we think we got a lot of the unforeseen,” Christie said adding, “There are going to be some unforeseen conditions. It’s an existing structure.”
The project includes more space for the clerk’s offices and the public, record storage, public restrooms and multipurpose meeting spaces that will be separate from the clerk’s workspace and could be used for meetings for other offices as well as grand jury sessions and places to maintain witness separation. The repurposing project started in 2021 when commissioners hired a contractor to remove the steel bars and the nonstructural block walls that had remained in the courthouse since jail operations were moved to the current facility in 2008.
County business manager Andrew Keller said officials hope to have the bids reviewed in about two weeks, sign a contract shortly after, coordinate with the contractor on a start date, and have the repurposing done by the end of 2024. “Ideally sooner than that,” he added.
4th courtroom planned in former clerk's office space
Commissioners are planning to remodel the space on the second floor of the courthouse that will be vacated by the clerk into a fourth courtroom for the general division of Common Pleas Court.
Keller said he was asked when that work might begin.
“Once they vacate that space in the clerk’s office, the court will have the green light to get started ASAP with the fourth courtroom build out,” he said, adding that discussions so far have focused on repurposing that area as simply as possible. “This is a courtroom that is going to be very functional,” Keller said. “We’ve even discussed doing some of the work in house if possible. It’s going to be a much simpler project than the L2 project.”
Commissioners have designated money from the county’s federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation to pay for the L2 project.
On a separate construction project, commissioners voted to post bid documents on Monday and open bids Nov. 9 for a nearly $3 million water line replacement project in the Village of Shiloh.
The bid opening originally was set for Oct. 23 but was delayed after village administrator Bryan VerBerg had concerns about project paperwork.
The Shiloh water project includes replacing 1,500 feet of water lines on Main Street and a number of side streets, installing remote read water meters for some 275 customers, replacing fire hydrants, and tearing down an old abandoned water tank on Mechanics Street.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Courthouse renovations to cost less than expected
