Commissioners hold 2nd bid opening for OSU Extension building; Johansen welcomed as new land bank coordinator

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades, along with project manager Jason Funderburg of the WDC Group, conducted a second bid opening for the proposed Ohio State University Extension office in a special meeting Monday, July 17.

No official action has been taken yet, but commissioners indicated that they would likely be awarding the project at their July 19 meeting.

Discussions for the proposed project have been ongoing for nearly a year, as commissioners voted in August 2022 to hire an architecture firm, the WDC Group, to explore possible options for the office relocation.

The Extension office is currently located in the Highland County Administration Building. According to Daniels, both spacing and parking issues at the administration building are factors in looking into the possible move, based on talks with Extension staff.

Commissioners previously held a bid opening June 28, after which they rejected the bids. At the time of the first bid opening, the project estimate was $819,870, with the WDC Group recommending commissioners reject all bids due to being more than 10 percent over the project estimate.

The county received bids from the same four contractors Monday, with this round’s bids including:

• Tag Williams, Inc.: base bid 1A (general work and labor), $771,249 (up from $736,462 in the first bid opening), with options for masonry and wainscoting ($32,560) and for a standing seam metal roof ($36,600).

• Weller’s Plumbing and Heating: base bid 15A (plumbing), $112,950; base bid 15B (mechanical), $100,800. Those estimates were unchanged from their original bid.

• CT Electric: base bid 16A (electrical), $92,000 (a decrease from their $95,000 initial bid).

• WE Contracting, LLC: base bid 16A (electrical), $92,800 (an increase from their $82,500 original bid).

On Monday, Funderburg said the “published estimate” for the project has been increased to $997,000, so the $1,076,999 fell within the 10-percent parameters. He said that he “no problem” with any of the contractors bidding on the project and would issue an official letter of recommendation to the county to consider at their next meeting.

“You guys need to decide what you do on the couple alternates, as far as the standing seam roof, if you want to accept that, or the masonry and wainscoting around the building,” Funderburg told commissioners.

Daniels said the masonry and wainscoting “would make it a more attractive building” but asked if they could amend it to accept that bid later, or to only do certain sides of the building. “That would just be a change order later on,” Funderburg said.

Britton added he was in favor of accepting the alternate bid for the standing seam roof.

“Why don’t we plan on accepting the base bid and the low bids on the other ones and accepting the standing seam, and then if we want to add the wainscoting at some other point, we can do a contract change order,” Daniels said.

Although the meeting was originally expected to include budget meetings with county departments, those were postponed due to scheduling conflicts.

• Also on Monday, commissioners and Highland County economic development director Julie Bolender welcomed Jason Johansen in his first day as Highland County Land Bank coordinator, as he was introduced to county officials Monday morning.

During their July 12 meeting, commissioners approved the hiring of Johansen, at the recommendation of county human resources director Amy Bradley.

It was announced in May that former Highland County Land Bank Coordinator Mackenzie Edison resigned, after serving in that role for one year. The Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation, or land bank, board has not had a public meeting since April as they are in the middle of this transition period.

Johansen is a graduate of Chillicothe High School and the University of Rio Grande, where he majored in business management. His work experience includes the Walmart Distribution Center and seasonal work with the City of Chillicothe.

Johansen is married to the former Mallori Crum, and they have two daughters, Mali and Matali, and a third daughter, Milli, on the way. In his spare time, he enjoys boating, and he is an avid fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes and Cincinnati Bengals.

“I’m looking forward to working with the land bank and cleaning up Highland County,” Johansen said.