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Commissioners approve cleaning contract amendment and multiple facilities service awards; vendor staffing and pricing discussed
Summary
The Board approved Amendment No.1 to Goebel's commercial cleaning contract (no increase in contract amount) and awarded 2025 landscaping and pest-control services to several low-quote vendors. County staff and Goebel's owner discussed staffing transitions, hourly wages paid to transferred employees, and comparative proposal pricing.
The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners on March 18 approved Amendment No. 1 to the Goebel's Commercial Cleaning Services master contract and awarded multiple facilities service contracts for 2025, including landscaping and pest-control services.
Bree Roberts, the county’s Director of Physical Assets, told commissioners the addendum to Goebel’s contract adds services identified during the first 30 days of the new contract but does not increase the contract price. Josh Goebel, owner of Goebel’s Cleaning, said the company is “very happy with the changeover” and described staffing transitions: his firm brought four former county custodial workers to full-time positions for the County-City Building and placed three others on contracts elsewhere. Goebel said the hourly rate for transferred county employees is $18.90 per hour and described an average per-hour rate across his company of $18.26 (excluding ownership and upper management).
Roberts reviewed comparative proposal prices: two other proposals came in at about $832,000 and $878,000 per year, while Goebel’s quoted $337,000 per year, which county staff said drove the award decision and the decision to enter a multi-year contract at the lower locked-in price.
The board also approved awards for 2025 landscaping services by facility to South Bend Landscaping, Furbinger (listed in packet as Fairbinger/Furbinger), and AOH LLC; staff noted the approach saves roughly $12,000 by splitting awards per facility rather than using a single vendor. For pest control across county facilities, staff recommended Arrow (ARROW) Pest Control as the low quote and the board approved that award.
All actions recorded were approved by voice vote with Commissioners Morton, Hazen and Maxmeier recorded as Aye.
Quotes and staff clarifications in the meeting: - Goebel’s quoted $337,000 per year for county cleaning services; comparable proposals were $832,000 and $878,000 per year. - County staff and Goebel said the company brought four county workers to full-time status; wages for those employees were honored at $18.90 per hour with standard company benefits and accruals. - County staff will perform 30‑day and quarterly contract reviews with the vendor to address scope and service-level clarifications.
The board voted to approve Amendment No.1 to the Goebel’s contract and the related service awards during the March 18 meeting.
