(2-2-23) The Mercer County Commissioners at their Tuesday morning meeting voted 3-0 to award Westerheide Construction of Sidney a $2.9 million contract on the proposed restructuring of the new agriculture building . Westerheide Construction’s base bid was for $2.7 million plus six of its seven alternate bid items since the project came in within 10% of the engineer’s estimate.

The converting of the 20,000-square-foot former Cheryl Ann facility located at 4980 Mud Pike will be occupied in the future by the offices for the Soil and Water Conservation District, the OSU Extension Agency and United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. The hope is that the center could be completed by the the end of this year.

Commissioners and federal officials signed off on a 10-year-lease agreement for space within the center. Under the terms of the agreement, commissioners will pay the upfront costs to meet the federal government’s specific building and utility demands or tenant improvements.

All the funding will come from the American Rescue Plan Act funds. The county government has already received two installments of ARPA funding totaling $7.9 million.

It is good news for the Mercer County Health District as they will remain in the Central Services Building. The Commissioners had told Health Districts that they would have to move out of the building due to limited space with a 2024 deadline set.

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