Hamblen County commissioners in committee voted April 14 to accept the apparent low general-contractor bid and move forward with the renovation of the Food City building into the new county health department, a project that also includes county office space, UT Extension space and storage for the Election Commission.

Laura Johnston of Barber McMurray Architects presented the bid results, saying the county received seven qualified bids for the base renovation and three alternates: (1) UT Ag extension area and associated storage and voting storage, (2) additional exterior windows for daylighting the south side of the health department and (3) a premanufactured covered pavilion for drive-through testing or vaccinations. Johnston said the base bid area is roughly 20,222 square feet for the health department and its immediate circulation.

Architects and county staff identified Construction Partners of Johnson City as the apparent low bidder; Johnston said Construction Partners submitted a base bid of $3,761,000 and provided qualifications and references indicating experience with similar projects. The county also detailed the county'only portion of the work (the county offices and related build-out) as Construction Partners' county bid of $637,300 with contingencies and furniture/fixture estimates added for an estimated county-space cost of about $748,000.

Mayor Britton and project staff outlined how the state grant and local match would pay for the health department portion: a Department of Health grant to the county will cover the health department build-out while the county match is comprised in part from earlier property purchase and other local sources. County staff said the total combined project budget for the health department portion and contingencies was about $4.2 million; county-space work would be paid from an existing $750,000 line in the current capital budget. Staff also said possible value engineering and potential UT support for furniture could reduce the county portion.

Commissioner Thomas Doty moved to accept the apparent low bid and approve Construction Partners to perform both the health department and county-space build-outs so one contractor will do the full project; Commissioner Mike Harvill seconded the motion. After no further discussion, the committee voted to move the contract award forward.

Next steps: staff will proceed with contract negotiations and move forward with one contractor handling both the state-funded health department space and the separately funded county offices, and will return details for full commission approval and contract execution as required.