County moves ahead on new storage facility at fairgrounds

Bartholomew County is moving forward with a plan to build a new storage facility at the county fairgrounds.

The Bartholomew County Commissioners on Monday formalized a contract with Larry Mohr Construction of Flat Rock to construct the new building and gave notice to proceed on the work. Mohr was the only bidder for the project in December with a bid of just over $740,000. County Commissioners approved that bid in December.

The bidding process was originally started in September of last year, but no company submitted a bid. County officials said that several restrictive building requirements limited the number of companies interested in bidding. In November, the county commissioners put the project back out to bid.

Steve Ruble with Strand Associates brought the contract to the commissioners for approval. Ruble said his firm has been working with Mohr to get all the pieces in place to start the work, including bonds, insurance and to set up the contract documents.

County Commissioners said that the county is in serious need of more storage space. Commissioners President Tony London pointed out that in some cases the county has to maintain things like evidence from criminal investigations for 50 years or more. Recently the county lost storage space at the former county highway garage space on State Street and at the former Elks Club building.