Starr County Commissioners Court voted Dec. 22 to award a remodeling contract to NM Contracting to refurbish an offsite building where court operations will temporarily relocate while courthouse construction proceeds.

Marie Molina of MillNet Architectural Services presented the bids and recommended NM Contracting, saying, "we're actually recommending to go with NM contracting who was a low bidder by 50,000 from the next low bidder." She told the court that five bids were received, the highest was about $2.2 million, and the lowest bid was approximately $1,532,000; the next-low bidder, Rio United, bid about $1,580,000. Molina said the low bids were well below the original $1.8 million budget and that NM has worked with MillNet on federal and grant projects since 2014.

The presiding judge described the purpose of the work: to "refurbish" an offsite building so the county can "move the courts from the courthouse so we can start on construction at the courthouse." The record refers to the offsite structure both as the "old Sarski Building" and, later, as the "old Fordyce Building." The court did not clarify a single official building name during the meeting.

A motion and second to approve the award were made and the court voted in favor; the judge announced that the motion carried. The contract award was described in the meeting record as being funded through grant dollars, and Molina said the low bids leave the project below the county's budgeted amount.

Next steps indicated by the record: the county will proceed with the awarded contractor and use the grant funding to complete the refurbishment before relocating court functions. The court did not provide additional timetable or an exact contract value beyond the rounded low-bid figure provided in the presentation.