More bids needed for judicial building, JP says

It’s not exactly back to the drawing board as Carroll County officials study the possibility of constructing a new building to house a courtroom and office space for the county’s eastern district, but the project won’t be moving forward without more information.

District 11 Justice of the Peace John Howerton, who chairs the Carroll County Quorum Court’s Eastern Judicial District Steering Committee, said during a combined meeting with the budget/finance and personnel committees on Tuesday, Aug. 13, that no bids were submitted for several portions of the proposed building. Bids were opened on July 25.

“There were … seven packages that were not bid at all, no bids whatsoever,” Howerton said. “Another one, the cement work, concrete work, there was just one bid on.”

Howerton said the county will solicit bids again. He said the bids that were received did come in a little lower than had been projected by an architect and construction management firm, but not as much as he had hoped.

“The (bids) that we did receive and open up didn’t miss the architect’s (projections) very much,” Howerton said. “They did come in a little bit cheaper. … The build itself came in at $3.8 (million) versus the estimate that was $4.6 (million.) So we still don’t know what we’re doing until we receive the rest of these. We can’t make an intelligent decision.”

Howerton said it’s “looking less likely” that the county will be able to move forward with the new building.

“It’s looking less likely to me, unless we can figure out a funding mechanism where we can come up with some more funds. …” Howerton said new bids on the project are due Aug. 29.

“We’ll get those numbers and get it all packaged out and then we’ll meet again and make a suggestion to (County Judge David Writer),” Howerton said.