Bowling Green Aldermen Open Bids On Building Demolition
Despite the county commission deciding to back out of working together to take down two dilapidated properties for the city along with portions of the Courthouse Annex, the Bowling Green Board of Aldermen opened bids for the projects yesterday.
Presiding Commissioner Chris Gamm attended the board’s committee meeting on Monday, Oct. 2. At that time he indicated the Annex has had problems for some time and that taking down a porto ion of it would make sense
“We’ve been kicking the can down the road since 2015,” he had remarked.
Since then the commissioners met with their engineer, Michael Purol. He indicated that work could be done to restore the property. Western District Commissioner Bill Allen said he would rather spend anther $150,000 and maintain the structure rather than spending that amount or more to demolish a building that can be structurally sound.
While disappointed, the Board of Aldermen seem committed to moving forward for the sake of public safety and to reopen that portion of Court Street following the demolition of the brick three-story Rahmeyer building and the two-story Butler building that is better known as the old gas company building.
The city received three bids for the project but will only be able to consider two of them. The bid submitted by a local contractor did not contain all of the necessary paperwork by the deadline. That bid from Mark Ledford was for $1,359. The next lowest bid was for $169,995 from Bricker Excavating out of Quincy, Ill. The last bid was for $170,000 from Roberts Demolition Roll Off out of Center. All three contractors were at the meeting last night. Bricker indicated he would also install a fence around the job site for the duration of the project.
Another company that Orf checked with priced the amount at about $5,500.
The board voted to table a decision until the next board meeting on Monday, Nov. 6.
In other business, the board voted to accept a bid from Chris Lohman of Heartland Forest Consulting. Aldermen also voted to continue a contract for IT services from Devin McClain Consulting for $50 per hour and 50-cents per mile.
