June 26, 2019 - The Shelby County Commissioners received and considered several bids for the remodeling of the Juvenile Probation building to accommodate the Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 office.
Although the bids were opened and considered, the conversation still continues as the agenda item was tabled for further consideration.
Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, opened the bids with the first being from Mike Smith at a total of $50,055 without leveling of the building. The next bid was from E-Z Way Construction for a total of $48,450 also without leveling. A third bid was from Bolton Carpentry for $40,385 with the addition of building leveling and the concrete walkway to the ramp would be $4,950 extra bringing the total bid to $45,335.
Once the bids were read the commissioners discussed the potential of taking the project in a different direction.
"I think that we need to discuss before we decide to accept one of these bids or reject all of them," said Charles Barr, Precinct 3 Commissioner. "We need to decide if we want to put this much money, I mean what's the courts opinion on that, back into a house that we've already put, if I understand last time, it was about 60 plus the purchase price. I'm just bringing that up for discussion."
McSwain said he really doesn't want to spend the projected amount of money on an old structure, "So, I'm gonna ask Mr. Bellmyer has he had an opportunity to get us any metal construction building figures or any options that we might do different than this, like on some of the other county projects."
Tom Bellmyer, Commissioner Precinct 4, explained the specifications were gathered about Melissa Crouch, Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, office space to attempt and replicate that with another building and get an estimate on cost.
"What we requested, we wanted for a turnkey building and the only thing lacking was to connect the utilities which would be the water, sewer, and electrical would have to get hooked up and to have them placed on site," said Bellmyer.
Barr said the dimensions are just a little less than 1,000 square feet. Bellmyer stated the structure itself would be 60x16.
The proposals were sought from Campbell Portable Buildings and Spartan Structures. At this time they only have a cost estimate from Spartan Structures; however, Barr assumed the amount would be competitive.
Specifications on the structures include a wheelchair access, egress windows and air conditioning.
Bellmyer expressed a desire to have a clarification from the bidders on the specific nature of their quotes and what all they included since one included a bid for leveling and at least one other said that was something he could do. If the court were to decide to go the route of building a structure, he said there are several property options they have discussed as well as the school building.
"If you don't work on that building how long is the other part of the building going to last? If it's going to fall down in three or four years, five years y'all talking about a lot of it rotting and stuff. Then, I would say let's do the construction part," said Jimmy Lout, Commissioner Precinct 2.
Another concern Bellmyer mentioned would come up either way is the Juvenile Probation building is not currently wheelchair accessible, and to be compliant that would need to be added.
Barr had additional concerns of what might be found once construction began on the house.
"Everybody here knows that's ever done any kind of construction on an old house, you find other things once you start tearing out," said Barr. "I think they've been pretty thorough, but there's still a lot of things that you can't see."
McSwain said his opinion is he would rather spend $50,000 to $60,000 on a structure that would be around for another 30 years and could be added on to rather than invest that in a building that may not last 10 years.
With the bids now being public information as originally submitted, Clint Porterfield, County Auditor, cautioned the court about visiting with the bidders before approving because the bid could potentially be manipulated to entice a bid approval. If clarification were necessary, he advised first approving one then seeking that clarification.
A motion carried to table the remodeling until the next commissioners' court meeting.
The meeting was then adjourned at 10:03am.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Pay weekly expenses. 2. Current payroll. 3. Adjourn. Agenda items tabled during the meeting include: 1. Sealed bids for remodeling the Juvenile Probation building to accommodate JP. 1.
