The long-delayed, but much anticipated start of demolishing existing buildings to make room for Clinton County’s first ever Justice Center is now here, as the Clinton Judicial Center’s PDB (Project Development Board) accepted a bid to have the buildings taken down.
The PDB, meeting in special session last Friday morning, December 1, accepted the low bid of $362,000 from Sunesis Environmental, LLC of Fairfield, Ohio.
Only four members of the board were able to attend last week’s meeting.
The motion to approve the Sunesis bid was made by board member Jake Staton, seconded by Jesse Stockton and passed unanimously. The motion also included that the bid was accepted on the recommendation of Codell, the project Construction Manager.
The meeting was brief, with the only other items voted on being the approval of minutes and a disbursement request.
The demolition project had been delayed for about a year due to different setbacks, but primarily due to environmental studies which revealed asbestos and other hazardous waste materials in some of the older buildings to be torn down.
Only certified firms that deal with hazardous waste qualify to do such demolition work and apparently some of the demolition work could be sub-contracted.
Bid proposals on the demolition package had been formally opened in the circuit courtroom of the courthouse on November 22, with PDB members having time to review each bid prior to contracting the job.
A total of seven bids, including five in-state and two out-of-state, were received, and ranged widely in cost estimates for the work.
Bids ranged as low as the $362,000 accepted, upward to over $1.7 million. The closest company to Albany was Glasgow, with a firm from Michigan being the farthest away.
Completion of demolition, according to the time table for total completion of the project, which includes all debris being off-site and the project, being closed, is scheduled for March 8.
There will be various stages of work from start to completion, with a date for each phase to be completed.
Installing a perimeter barricade fence is among the first steps in the process  with an early December date set for that part of the work. Actual construction demolition is estimated to take about 30 days with a late January completion time scheduled.
The project will also include adding topsoil and seeding on the area where the buildings are removed and is to be complete just prior to close-out of the overall project.
Residents can expect to see a lot of activity around and near the current buildings which include the former Ferguson Brothers Hardware, McWhorter Implement and the adjacent McWhorter’s Variety, from late this month throughout the project, primarily during January.
The buildings are located just north of the courthouse square, between North Cross and Washington Streets.
The next meeting of the Justice Center Project Development Board, its regular monthly meeting, is scheduled for Friday, December 15, in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse and is open to the public.