White County Commissioners approved bidding out toilet replacements for the White County Jail during Monday night’s Budget Committee meeting.
White County Finance Director Chad Marcum said he received an estimated project quote of $100,000. Half of the costs would be installation. County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the county could choose to do the installation on its own.
“I don’t have a problem funding it,” Robinson said. “Normally, I don’t like self-installation. It kills the warranty, but when the labor is fifty percent of the cost, you can just about replace the replace the whole thing in time.”
Marcum said the county had originally planned to do the project in phases and budgeted $28,000 for the current fiscal year and next fiscal year’s budget to cover the cost. However, Marcum said the county could not do the project in phases as the jail wants to replace the toilets as soon as possible.
“The faster the better for them,” Marcum said. “I mean, I think they are dealing with some issues and they would like to go ahead and get it going.”
Marcum said the county could use a request for proposal to allow more companies to bid on the project.
“If we bid this specific brand, this one company is the only one that can install that specific brand,” Marcum said. “But there are other companies that do this general type of system, and so that will allow us to get thoughts from people that do other similar type of systems that we can go with and we’ll score those based on you know, how it meets the needs and the references and price would also be apart of that.”
Budget Committee Chairman Kyle Goff said part of the quote Marcum received said the warranty would not change if the county did the installation. Robinson said that was the case but was not too confident that if the county bid the project out and did not include installation services, the toilets would still have the same warranty.
In other business, Steering Committee B will no longer pursue donating to a local spay and neuter program. Robinson said after hearing that someone tried to give Sparta $5,000 so the county could match, he agreed with Sparta Mayor Jerry Lowery that they should not do business that way. Robinson said he was not in favor of donating to the program.
The Budget Committee will be sending a proposal for a codes inspector back to full court for the third time. Commissioner Derrick Hutchings said he believes the past few meetings different commissioners have been absent and that the committees have not been able to address some of the concerns that many people have had about hiring a codes inspector.
The Budget Committee will send a proposal to full court regarding the purchase of two cardiac heart monitors and other various equipment. Marcum said the equipment would be paid for through an EMS grant and that purchases would impact the overall budget.
The Purchasing Committee approved a request for proposal for the Freedom Celebration Fireworks. Marcum said it is the same company the county has used before and the bid was an estimated $13,000.
The committee also approved a request for bid for the White County Middle School Pass-Thru Warmer. Marcum said the county bid the project two months ago and that the awarded bidder was not able to follow through with the project and the second lowest bidder was not able to honor their bid. Marcum said after rebidding the project, the low bid was within 10 percent of the original awarded bid.
