The Public Works and Engineering Services Committee voted to reject bids for the Pollard House renovation after staff said market changes produced higher-than-expected bids. Speaker 7 said the county will value-engineer the project with staff and administration and rebid it in about three to four months to bring costs within budget.

Also presented by Speaker 7 was an independent contractor agreement with Thompson Roofing to retrofit the Columbia County CARES Building roof following wind damage sustained during Hurricane Helene. Staff recommended the retrofit as a metal-over-metal solution; the contract amount is $70,965 and the item was approved on consent.

Speaker 7 told the committee that recent bid patterns have been more aggressive and that a single low bidder was about 17% lower than others, prompting the recommendation to reject. The transcript records staff estimates of a three- to four-month redesign period before rebidding; the committee approved the rejection motion and the roofing contract on consent.

The committee did not provide roll-call vote counts in the transcript for these actions.