By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The commissioners met with Dale Musser to discuss quotes and award bids. Commissioners Matt Aultman, Marshall Combs, and Larry Holmes were present.

Musser is the Facility & Safety Coordinator. He presented the commissioners with quotes from three different contractors and a recommendation of who should be awarded the bid for the Law Library Sidewalk & Sewer Repair.

“We were requested by the City of Greenville last year to put a new sidewalk in in front of the Law Library. We got ready to do that, and in the process we found that there was a sanitary cistern in that sidewalk,” Musser said.

This caused the project to be put on hold, as they took a step back and regrouped. The cistern has to come out, and then they will have to tie back into the city and run pvc to the library.

“We have to essentially clean house and put a new sidewalk in,” Musser said.

Sowers Construction, LLC came in with the lowest bid at $35,000. It was the recommendation from Musser to award Sowers the bid, and the commissioners approved the recommendation. All Terrain Excavating had a bid of $37,500, and Fenstermaker Excavating had a bid of $38,000.

Musser also presented a letter of recommendation from Access Engineering to award Flora Excavating, Inc. the Darke County Garst Goverment. Center Parking Lot Project.

“There is a need out at the Goverment Center for extra parking,” Musser said. “There is not a lot of parking during the election time nor during the day when the courts are in, so we want to put a parking lot in to the west end of the Garst building.”

The bids were comparable, and Flora Excavating, Inc. was awarded the project as the lowest bidder and entered into a contract for the bid amount of $105,446.10. On another project, due to the bids coming in very close to one another, Musser made the recommendation to get one of the replacement vehicles from one bidder and the other from the other.

The county has two vehicles that have “lived a good life” but need to retire for safety and maintenance responsibility. One of the vehicles in question is a 2002, and the other is from the 1990s.

“We have have two vehicles we are taking out of the fleet that have been degrading slowly,” Aultman said. “One is almost Fred Flintstone where you can see through the floorboards. It was made safe, but the Ohio winter took a toll on the vehicles.”

One of the quotes is from Hittle Pontiac for a 2025 (@WD) GMC Sierra – 3500 HD – long wheelbase for $45,083, and the other bid for a 2025 (2WD) CHEVY Silverado – 3500 HD – regular bed from Troutwine Auto Sales came in at $44,654.40. Musser made the recommendation to get one from each company apposed to both from one.

“Those bids are so close, and they are identical trucks just one is a GMC and the other is a CHEVY,” Musser said. “They both assured me that the trucks would come in sometime between now and when we get them.”

The board approved the recommendation to make the purchases.

The commissioners voted to increase the limit of a regular “blanket” purchase order from $5,000 to $15,000. The “Blanket” purchase orders shall not extend beyond the end of the fiscal year. Commissioner Aultman said the raise was due to inflation costs.

“With the cost of goods going up since COVID, we have seen the need to increase the limit because some bids are well over $13,000,” Aultman said.

This increase will save on time, energy, and resources, as instead of filling out three “blankets”, they will be able to fill out one to help with efficiency regarding high priced items.

In a matter of creating jobs and growth within Kings Command in Versailles, the commissioners approved a $8,175.70 fund advance to cover the final Shinn Bros payment for the “Reed Road Well Field Transmission Line” Phase II within the Village of Versailles. The money will be advanced back once revenue is received.

“This economic development program was half of a million dollars towards a multi million transmission line to their well field,” Aultman said. “It is directly tied to the growth of the employees and growth of the business.”

They yearly IV-D Contract between the DC Child Support Enforcement Agency and Darke County Juvenile Court was approved. The contract totaling $38,203.89 is effective from July 1, 2024 until June 30, 2025, unless terminated earlier in accordance with the terms. The unit rate for the IV-D Contract is 412.73 per Unit of Service.

The commissioners meet every Tuesday and Thursday for their Regular Session at 1:30 p.m. in the administration building; 520 S Broadway Street. These meetings are open and welcome to the public.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].