The Warren County Commission last week awarded the first bids for the county’s new administration building.

The three bids unanimously approved by the commissioners were for sitework, site utilities and building concrete, structural steel and exterior framing/trusses.

The county is going to construct a 36,670-square-foot, two-story building on 3 acres the commission purchased last year on South Highway 47 and Mockingbird Lane in Warrenton. The new facility will house all non-court related county offices.

The commissioners said more room is needed due to crowded conditions at the existing courthouse and more room for court-related departments.

The commissioner selected T.S. Banze Construction for sitework for $107,900. Six other companies submitted bids ranging from $129,000 to $256,100.

The site utility work will be performed by Karrenbrock Excavating for $87,195. Six other bids ranged from $134,406 to $173,700.

Hawkins Construction was awarded the bid for building concrete, structural steel and exterior framing/trusses for $1,002,800. The remaining seven bids ranged from $1,060,000 to $1,136,000.

During last Thursday’s meeting with representatives from Septagon, the project manager, and Treanor Architects, the design firm, the commission was presented with updated cost estimates of the bids and overall project.

Based on construction bids, the project would cost $5,031,396, slightly lower than a preliminary estimate of $5,110,237.32 calculated following the Sept. 21 bid opening.

An estimate compiled in April was $5,488,841.

For the overall project, the cost estimate is $6,299,409, lower than April’s preliminary figure of $6,471,736. Not subtracted from the cost were two grants totaling $227,745 to construct and outfit the emergency management agency portion of the building.

Since the county commission had budgeted $6 million for the project out of the capital improvement fund, Septagon officials said they will explore ways for further cost savings. Last week, they had identified around $100,000 in possible cuts. 

The commissioners also said some of the fees in the overall cost, such as design and engineering, have been paid.

“It will be nip and ruck,” said Southern District Commissioner Hubie Kluesner regarding keeping the project cost around the budgeted amount. 

The commission will meet again with Septagon and Treanor officials tentatively on Thursday, Oct. 14, from 10:30 a.m.-noon. 

“I would like to move in steps rather than solve problems in one setting,” Kluesner said. 

Site work is expected to begin by the end of October. The construction process is expected to take around 16 months.

Three alternates — finishing out the health department area in the lower level, going with a metal roof panel finish and woodwork for the commission chambers — also were part of the bid package.

The commission still needs to determine whether to proceed with relocating the health department to the new building or keep the office in the courthouse for now. It’s estimated to cost $217,011 to finish out the health department in the new building.

The county received more than 100 total bids for the project, which was broken into 23 individual packages to entice local contractors to participate in the bidding process.

The individual packages allowed companies to bid on a variety of work, such as sitework, termite control, site utilities, asphalt pavement, landscaping, retaining walls, site concrete, window treatments, elevator, plumbing, fire protection, HVAC and electrical.

Companies were allowed to bid on as many packages as desired. The lone package to not receive any bids was for overhead doors.