County receives two bids for elections board project

Seneca County commissioners received two bids for construction on the Seneca County Board of Elections relocation and renovation. The board of elections office is to be moved into the former space of Hoperoy's Hallmark Shoppe, 77 S. Washington St. Seneca County Administrator Stacy Wilson said Tuesday bids were received from Charles Construction Services of Findlay and Studer-Obringer Construction of New Washington. Wilson said Charles Construction's base bid was about $140,500 while the base bid from Studer-Obringer was about $126,000. The project has five alternates: a bathroom upgrade, a kitchenette, work on the former space of the board of elections which is to host Seneca Regional Planning Commission, LED lighting upgrades and an upgrade to the heating and cooling system. Any of the alternates could be kept or removed. With all upgrades added to the project, the bid from Charles Construction would be about $230,000 while the bid from Studer-Obringer would be about $205,600. The renovation budget for the project is about $250,000. Wilson said County Engineer Mark Zimmerman would review the bids and commissioners may make a decision Thursday. Commissioners also approved a memorandum of understanding between themselves, the board of elections and state government. Wilson said the memorandum will serve as a commitment to purchasing electronic poll books. Board of elections deputy director Lori Ritzler said about $54,109 in state reimbursement funding is available to help purchase the new equipment. Ritzler said the state does not yet require the electronic poll books, but she said it is strongly recommended that countries upgrade. She said the board had narrowed its decision down to two poll books, The KnowInk-produced and iPad-based Poll Pad and the ES&S-produced and Windows-based ExpressPoll Tablet. Ritzler said the prices between the two are comparable and are in the range of $70,000-$80,000. She said she hopes the board of elections comes to a decision during its meeting today. JJC update In other business, the board decided it did not want to downgrade any of the potential design options for the joint justice center. The Seneca County Joint Justice Center Executive Core Team debated 10 downgraded options on the project Jan. 27. If the less expensive options were chosen, about $181,000 could be shaved off the cost. Wilson said commissioners needed to make a decision on a few of the options, but Commissioner Shayne Thomas said he would like to keep all initial design plans. "(The downgraded options) would reduce, in my view, the quality of construction," he said. Although the decision could be changed in the future, commissioners agreed to take the decision to the next joint justice center core team meeting to discuss it with others in the group. Museum gets $3,000 Also during the meeting, commissioner Mike Kerschner updated the board on a Monday meeting regarding the Seneca County Museum. He said the museum is open 1-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon-4 p.m. Saturdays.¬† Kerschner said the museum was heading in a positive direction. Seneca Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Charlene Watkins presented a $3,000 check from the Ohio Historical Connection to the commissioners for building administration for the museum. "I'm very happy for the Seneca County Museum," Watkins said. Commissioner Holly Stacy said Seneca County was one of seven communities given the grant, which awarded a maximum of $4,000.