The Porter County Board of Commissioners held an efficient, uneventful special meeting Tuesday morning to open numerous bids for the new highway garage and renovations for the health department, coroner’s office, and veterans administration.
They also awarded a bid to Korellis Roofing to replace the roof at the Porter County Jail and make exterior improvements.
The $4 million bid from Korellis included alternates 1 and 2 that requested pricing to extend the standard 20-year warranties to 30 years for both the TPL rubber roof and the standing seam roof on the jail.
The highway garage project saw Porter County Auditor Karen Martin opening 33 bids in a slew of categories including general trades, masonry, roofing, painting, fire protection, plumbing, and electrical.
“It’s a big category,” Martin said of the agenda item covering the bidding for the structure with an estimated price tag of $18 million.
Two bids were received under the general trades category. Larson Danielson bid $8.9 million and Gariup Construction bid $8.3 million.
Three bids were received for masonry. Gough, Inc. was the low bidder at $431,000 while Kwiatkowski Masonry was the highest bidder at $619,100.
There were also two bids for roofing; four bids for metal studs, drywall, and ceiling work; two bids for painting; two bids for fire protection; six bids for plumbing; six bids for mechanical; and six bids for electrical.
The Skillman Corporation, project manager on all the county’s capital improvements, will take the bids under advisement and prepare to offer its recommendations for awarding of bids at another special Board of Commissioners meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 2.
For remodeling of the health, coroner, and veterans administration departments, collectively referred to as the administration building project, commissioners received four bids: $1.2 million each from Berglund Construction, Hasse Construction, and Gariup Construction; and $1.3 million from Gibson Lewis. Each company also provided alternate bids in two categories requested by the county.
These were also taken up under advisement by Skillman and will be awarded at the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 16.
In related business, the board approved two separate contracts for Baker Tilly Advisory Group to provide bond counsel on a second general obligation bond the county is considering taking out to continue renovations at the jail and Porter County Juvenile Detention Center, and bonding to fund bridge upkeep.
Porter County Attorney Scott McClure said the county needed Baker Tilly’s “expertise to help with some of the financial crunching” for the bridge projects.
Board of Commissioners President Jim Biggs, R-North, said there was some concern over the length of closing of Mineral Springs Road. “This was a way to come up with a way to try to expedite that, which I agree with,” Biggs said, giving McClure credit for the idea.
McClure said there could be anywhere from two to eight bridges that might need work at once and the process is lengthy.
For its consulting services, Baker Tilly charges by the hour, anywhere from $110 to $175 per hour for work by support staff, to $175 to $275 per hour for consultants, to $400 to $600 per hour for work by partners, which Biggs said would be rare.
“These contracts are controlled more by the SEC,” McClure said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
