Belmont County officials opened six construction bids for a long-planned new animal shelter, and every single one came in well above the $6 million the county had expected to pay. Among the five bids with published amounts, the lowest offer, from Grae-Con Construction, landed at $8,224,448, while the highest, from United Construction Company, reached $8,863,000 before any optional add-ons.
Six Contractors, One Shared Problem
According to The Times Leader, the full slate of bids also included StoneMile Group LLC at $8,523,485, Jarvis Downing and Emch Inc. at $8,650,000, DiMarco Construction Company at $8,740,000, and an additional submission from Fleeher Contracting LLC. Every proposal cleared $8 million, a gap of more than $2 million over the project's original estimate. As WTRF reported, Belmont County Commission President Jerry Echemann said the bids have been handed to the project architect to review why her estimate diverged so sharply from what contractors actually quoted.
Echemann told WTRF that officials will now have to decide whether to move forward with the project as designed or revise the plans to bring costs down, with that conversation expected to play out over the next couple of weeks. The bidding itself followed strict procurement rules: contractors were required to submit bid security equal to at least 10% of their total proposal.
A Shelter Built Around Animal Welfare
The design itself reflects years of planning aimed at more than just square footage. TC Architects vice president Susan Allen, identified as the project's architect, explained that the facility's animal housing is divided into three separate pods, each split into three smaller sections with natural light meant to keep animals calm, with space set aside for a potential fourth pod down the road, the Times Leader reports.
Specifications call for a single-story, 14,000-square-foot slab-on-grade Omniblock structure at 68401 Hammond Road in St. Clairsville, according to HigherGov. A pre-bid conference was scheduled for September 23 at the Belmont County Commissioners Office, where prospective bidders were encouraged to review site requirements before submitting final numbers.
Where the Extra Cost Could Be Trimmed
One place commissioners could look to cut costs is in the bid alternates, which the article describes as optional add-ons priced separately from the base construction bids. Alternate pricing submitted by the contractors ranged from $158,900 to $415,000, and Echemann said that range was tied specifically to the optional addition of a metal roof.
The project traces back to April 2023, when county officials concluded that the existing animal shelter lacked sufficient space and parking to meet long-term needs, according to The Intelligencer. In April 2023, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners approved advertising a request for qualifications for design professional services, ahead of this fall's bidding process.
Commissioners voted to advertise for sealed bids on September 9, after settling on the roughly $6 million estimate that has now proven far short of the market. With every bid exceeding that figure by more than $2 million, Echemann's comments to WTRF leave open whether the county will scale back the design, seek additional funding, or move forward with the higher price tag to deliver the upgraded facility for Belmont County's animals.
