Mark Webber | The Republic Bartholomew County Commissioners Tony London, left-right, Larry Kleinhenz and Carl Lienhoop are shown during a recent meeting.
County officials for a second time opened bids on a project to build a new storage facility at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds after it received no bids the first time around.
The Bartholomew County Commissioners on Monday received one bid on a project to build a 16,200-square-foot storage building on the northeast corner of the county fairgrounds to be used to store various government documents.
Larry Mohr Construction of Flat Rock was the only bidder at $740,350 on the project that was expected to cost just under $1 million, Commissioner Tony London, R-District 3, said previously.
The project received no bids during the first go-round on Sept. 29, prompting Strand Associates — who the commissioners enlisted to do planning, design, bidding and construction administrative services for the project — to take another look at the building’s specifications.
Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz, R-District 1, said they felt they were too specific with some of the criteria of the building itself during the first bid process, including that the structure on the fairgrounds be a Morton Building. The completion date of the building was also pushed back a couple of months to September, compared to the first bid process.
The purpose of the storage facility is to house a large amount of government documents and other items previously stored on county properties that have either recently changed hands, are being renovated, or are just out of space.
Some of the documents have to be stored for 50 years by law, others are required to be kept in an environmentally-controlled environment, according to county officials.
There were a large number of documents being held in the old Elk’s Club at 507 Third St. that had served as the former court services building. When the city took ownership of that property and the block surrounded by Second, Franklin, Third and Lafayette streets in November 2022 as part of plans for what was going to be a future hotel and conference center, some of those documents were transferred to the former county highway garage at 2452 State St.
But now that the county has sold the former county highway garage to the Columbus Redevelopment Commission, commissioners said they need a secure facility relatively close to downtown to store the material, along with more currently kept at the Bartholomew County Courthouse, Purdue Extension Building, Bartholomew County Health Department and the Bartholomew County Youth Services Center.
The Columbus Plan Commission on Sept. 10 approved a site development plan major modification associated with the new storage building.
Commissioner Carl Lienhoop, R-District 2, said they could award the project as early as their meeting on Monday morning.
