County storage building to go out for bids again

Bartholomew County will be seeking new bids for a proposed storage building at the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds, in the hopes of attracting more bidders to the project.

Commissioners want to build a climate-controlled building at the fairgrounds to meet the county’s storage needs with an estimated cost of $1 million.

The bidding process was originally started in September, but several specific items such as the building type and the foundation requirements limited the number of companies interested in bidding, Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said. The county will remove those requirements but that will not reduce the quality of the building, they said.

Commissioners have said that the county needs more permanent storage space in the face of document retention requirements, and as the county loses storage space at the former county highway garage and the former Elks building. At one point the weight of paperwork threatened to collapse the fourth floor of the Bartholomew County courthouse.

Commissioners on Monday approved advertising for bids starting Wednesday and plan to open new bids December 1st.