County staff brief commissioners on multiple contracts and grants including elevator project, purchases for EMS and fire, and a $1M behavioral‑health grant

County staff briefed commissioners on a series of contracts, procurements and grants on July 6 that will appear on the board’s July 9 agenda.

Award and procurement highlights: James Anderson, design and construction manager, described the Law Enforcement Detention Center elevator modernization procurement. H.M. Kern was the apparent low bidder; staff reported a bid of $4,758,600 and said value engineering identified about $187,000 in reductions, producing a contract amount noted in staff remarks as roughly $4,570,000; staff also requested authority for change orders not to exceed $150,000 and a transfer of $1,017,025 from budget reserve to the capital project. Anderson said the original $3.5 million estimate omitted several cost categories, including electrical and general conditions, and that the architect had missed those elements in its earlier estimate.

Fire and EMS equipment: Brock Smith, the fire marshal, briefed a bulk purchase from Reinhardt Family Company Inc. for self‑contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs) after a competitive process. Smith cited a low bid in the $8.8 million range (transcript: $8,815,064.35) and an estimated bulk savings of $185,200; the package includes 81 air packs, 60 thirty‑minute bottles, face pieces and voice amplifiers. EMS battalion chief Stuart Swing presented a sole‑source purchase of Teleflex EZ‑IO intraosseous devices and a three‑year medical supplies contract that named Boundtree as the winning bidder, with pricing to hold steady and an expected annual obligation increase estimated around 3%. Swing also briefed an Airgas cylinder exchange and rental contract after a competitive bid process.

Social‑service and aging contracts: Terae Stafford summarized contracts with Senior Services Inc. to provide home‑delivered meals, frozen meals, congregate lunches, and adult day care/adult day health services. Staff described service levels that track roughly to work the department managed last fiscal year and requested the option to renew the contracts for two additional one‑year terms through FY2029. In the briefing, staff and the county manager set out the funding mixes cited by contract language: for Meals on Wheels the contract showed $10,125 in federal funds and $70,875 in county funds; for adult day care/health the briefing cited $67,046 federal, $61,216 state and $17,491 county funds; the adult day contracts referenced rates of $60/day for adult day care and $70/day for adult day health and a contract “not to exceed” $155,753.

Leases and non‑profits: Emily Mundy, property manager, briefed nominal $1 annual leases for Family Services (≈674 sq ft) and Legal Aid of North Carolina (≈142 sq ft) at the Family Justice Center; the agreements provide landlord maintenance and allow 30‑day termination.

Behavioral‑health grant: Staff reported that the state identified Forsyth County as the primary recipient for a roughly $1,000,000 award for first‑episode psychosis services; DayMark will be a local provider. A Partners representative said the award is intended for early‑episode identification and wraparound services and that funding continuity is expected through a pending LME‑MCO merger transition period.

What’s next: Staff presented these items for board consideration at the upcoming regular meeting. The July 6 briefing did not record formal approvals for most of these items; several will require formal action on July 9.