In January, WDC Group Principal Architect Chris Widener showed a rendering for a new county administration building to be located on the southwestern corner of Main and North Streets. On Friday, Widener presented county commissioners with his recommendations for contractors for the project.
File Photo | The Lima News
LIMA — All that is left now is to write the contracts and sign on the dotted line.
That is where the process led for the creation of a new administration building in downtown Lima for county agencies after Allen County commissioners met Friday morning with Chris Widener of the WDC Group, the project’s principal architect. Widener’s group had reviewed the bids for the project unsealed last week. In their efforts to seek both the lowest and best bid, the WDC Group reviewed the specifics for each of the participating companies’ bids while also conducting interviews and gathering references for those considered to be the top candidates.
During Friday’s meeting, Widener went over a letter with commissioners outlining their rationale for selecting for recommendation four companies covering various aspects of the building’s construction:
• General Work & Labor and Site Contractor: Charles Construction Services, Lima ($8,671,906)
• Plumbing Contractor: All Temp Refrigeration, Inc., Lima ($513,591)
• Mechanical Contractor: All Temp Refrigeration, Inc., Lima ($1,203,923)
• Electrical Contractor: Koester Electric Inc., Coldwater ($1,096,250)
• Fire Alarm, Security, CCT Camera and Access Control Systems Contractor: Northwestern Ohio Security Systems, Inc., Lima ($575,750)
All bids include allowances and accepted alternate pricing.
These contracts would bring the total cost for the project to $12,061,420, which is 19 percent less than the original estimated project cost of $15,028,000.
Speaking after the meeting, Commissioner Beth Seibert said she was gratified to see the project coming in at a reasonable rate but even more so to see many of the companies selected being from Lima to the point where 91 percent of the funds as currently recommended would stay in the Lima community.
“Plus with the other being in Coldwater, it’s still in the region,” she said. “But any time you can keep that kind of money local in the community, it’s great.”
The process of drawing up the contracts and getting them signed should take about two weeks, Seibert said, with the passage of a resolution by the board of commissioners representing the final step in the process.
“So far, we’re on schedule with the building projected to be occupied by August 2026,” she said.
