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Council OKs Expanded Appropriations for Public Safety Training Center, Adds Road and Utilities Work
Summary
Council committees discussed expanding the public safety training center project budget and adding a Kenny Drive road extension; the project is funded primarily by a $2.5 million state grant plus additional city funds and an ODOT reimbursement grant for road work.
Athens City Council’s City and Safety Services Committee discussed amended appropriations and additional scope for the public safety training center and the extension of Kenny Drive.
The city earlier received a $2,500,000 state capital grant for construction of a prefabricated training building at the Kenny Road site. Committee members said the administration is seeking to expand the project scope to include extending Kenny Drive to provide a second access point (reducing EMS response times) and to add water, sewer and storm infrastructure to serve the site. The Ohio Department of Transportation awarded a separate $200,000 reimbursable grant for the road work; the administration said that amount will be reimbursed to the street fund once project work is complete.
Committee discussion and later ordinance readings increase the project appropriation ceiling to $5,081,000 and allocate additional funds across municipal accounts: $1,000,000 from the street fund, $800,000 from the water fund, $400,000 from the sewer fund and $381,000 from the storm sewer fund. The committee said the $2,500,000 state grant will cover part of the building cost; the additional city funds cover road, utilities and storage-building work and related site preparation.
Administration described two construction contracts: Contract 1 for the training building and storage, and Contract 2 for road work and utility extensions. The board of control recommended awarding the road contract; Pepper Construction was identified as the apparent low bidder for the building contract during committee discussion. City officials said contract 2’s base bid came in about $1,000,000 under the engineer’s estimate and that staff verified the bids before recommending award.
Council members asked for contractor identification and timelines; the administration said contractors are prepared to start as soon as contracts are signed and the project could complete by the end of the calendar year if readings and approvals proceed promptly. No roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript; ordinances to accept the ODOT road grant and to amend training-center appropriations were read and forwarded for adoption.
