Ohio City street bids under estimates

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Van Wert County Board of Commissioners received two good bids on Tuesday for the North Main Street reconstruction project in the village of Ohio City.

PAB Construction in Celina-Coldwater submitted a base bid of $553,170.95 for the project, as well as two alternate bids. The Alternate 1 bid was $905.20 and the Alternate 2 bid was $9,700.

Also bidding on the project was Toms Construction of St. Henry, which submitted a base bid of $561,131 and alternate bids of $920.08 (Alternate 1) and $5,252 (Alternate 2).

Alternate bids include different lighting than is required in the base bid, Commissioner Gary Adams said.

Engineering estimates on the project compiled by Mote & Associates, which is handling design work for the street reconstruction, was $749,206, while alternate estimates were $1,000 (Alternate 1) and $10,000 (Alternate 2).

Adams said Mote and Ohio City Mayor Dale Boroff would review the bids and make a final decision on which company will be awarded the project.

Also Tuesday, three people, as yet unidentified, have submitted letters of interest for Van Wert County Department of Job and Family Services Director Jim Beard’s position.

Adams said the names would be released on Thursday when the commissioners begin interviewing applicants for the position.

Beard announced he was retiring for good just three months into an 18-month retire-rehire agreement that had sparked controversy and questions, some from within the Job and Family Services Department itself.

Beard cited health reasons in his letter of resignation, and will be leaving the job effective July 28.

Adams and Commissioner Clair Dudgeon had voted to approve Beard’s retire-rehire agreement back in March, claiming the move would save the county nearly $60,000 over the 21 months of the agreement, which was to run from April 1 of this year until December 2012.

Several people, including a number of Job and Family Services employees, had questioned the propriety of the retire-rehire agreement, and whether the move would generate the amount of savings claimed by Beard and the commissioners.

Controversy was also generated by the speed of the decision to approve the retire-rehire agreement. Although the commissioners had first said no decision would likely be made for 30 days after the hearing — because Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger was leaving on a trip to the Czech Republic the next week — a vote on the agreement came a week later, just prior to Lichtensteiger’s leaving on his trip.

Lichtensteiger voted against the retire-rehire proposal, stating that he was opposed to the concept of retire-rehire in general.

“When I was running for commissioner, I heard in very clear and unambiguous terms that people were tired of the whole concept of retire-rehire,” Lichtensteiger said.

“If you want to work and continue to work, do that,” Lichtensteiger added. “If you want to retire, retire and go play golf … whatever it is that you want to do.”

Under the agreement, Beard, who made $74,311.38 prior to his original retirement on April 1, was to work 32 hours a week, which the commissioners estimated would save the county approximately $28,000 in payroll costs over the 21-month agreement, as well as a 14-percent savings on contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). An insurance savings of approximately $26,000 was also estimated over the length of the agreement.