Commissioners approve pair of contracts

Lorain County commissioners awarded a pair of contracts July 18 for improvements and alterations to county-owned properties.

Precision Paving Inc., of Milan, received the larger of the two contracts.

Precision Paving will receive $854,240 for storm water and parking lot improvements to the Lorain County Job and Family Services facility. The company will receive a notice to proceed effective July 20 and the work is to be completed on or before Sept. 17.

Commissioner Lori Kokoski said the work is “very necessary.”

“I actually went by Job and Family Services over the weekend, and with no cars being in the parking lot, you get a sense of how shabby the building looks,” Kokoski said. “The building itself needs painted and power washed, but they have a lot of other things we need to get done before we can do that.”

Commissioner Matt Lundy said he’d noticed the parking lot needs work as well.

“The reality is, it’s the part of the country we live in,” Lundy said. “We’re exposed to extreme weather conditions all the time and we try to fill things, patch things and try to save as much money as you possibly can for the taxpayers.

“The reality is the bill eventually comes due and we service 47,000 people a year out of that building, if not more.”

Commissioner Ted Kalo said the money for the renovation will come out of the general fund, but will be refunded by the state because it pays the county rent for the building and parking lot.

The commissioners also awarded a $159,092 contract to Crown Commercial Construction, of Medina, for alterations to the Lorain County Clerk of Courts Elyria Title & Passport Office.

The work will begin July 23 and is expected to be completed by Sept. 28.

Commissioners also passed a revised resolution seeking valuations for a possible levy to fund Recovery One, a drug rehabilitation center in the former Golden Acres Nursing Home, 45999 North Ridge Road in Amherst.

A resolution was passed at the commissioners’ last meeting, but afterward, Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Gerald Innes discovered they’d cited the wrong law in the legislation.

This new version also lists the proper levy amounts as .15-mills, .20-mills, .25-mills and .30-mills.

“This is not an additional one, this is just a clarification,” Kalo said.

In other news, commissioners approved a trio of Community Incentive Grants through the Solid Waste District.

Sheffield Township will receive $4,832 to fund a fall recycling event and purchase advertising, office supplies, towels, toilet paper, files, plastic covers and signage.

Oberlin will receive $16,635 to purchase bus transportation for a field trip to the recycling center, newsletters, rebates for recycled televisions, home composting bins, Styrofoam pickup, shopping bags, paper, stickers, yard waste bags, binds and dumpsters.

Vermilion will receive $22,697 to buy a new street sweeper, advertising, a shred truck, office supplies, traffic safety equipment and paper products.

“This is based on the recycling amounts that they did last year, and this is their incentives to do it,” Kalo said.