YOUNGSTOWN Bidders must meet minority, labor rules

Finding qualified minorities made it hard to meet requirements in the past.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- All the bidders vying to put up a new office building downtown hire almost exclusively union labor. Each is bound by the city's minority hiring rules.
Charles P. Sammarone just wants to be sure that any issues on either topic are addressed early so there is no delay in construction.
Sammarone was among several members of downtown's redevelopment agency with questions Monday about the bids. The property committee of the agency, the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., spent about 90 minutes asking questions about the bids.
The committee expects to have a recommendation on awarding the contract Friday after another review. A full board vote to award the contract is expected Dec. 16.
The new building will go up next door to the George V. Voinovich Government Center on West Federal Street. The building will house the Mahoning County Children Services Board on the top two floors. The state Bureau of Workers' Compensation will occupy the second floor. The ground level will be enclosed parking.
Jance Construction of Mentor was the lowest of three bidders last week, at $7,078,300. Jack Gibson Construction Co. of Warren bid $7,536,500, and Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown bid $7,796,000.
Union, minority labor
Sammarone was CIC president when the agency built the Voinovich Center. Union and minority hiring were issues then.
They likely will be issues again, too, he said. He urged CIC officials to resolve any problems quickly.
All the bidders hire almost exclusively union labor, said Ed Romero, the CIC's lawyer. The CIC's proposal called for contractors to pay workers prevailing wage, he said. That means union or nonunion workers will be paid the same rate.
A bigger problem might be meeting minority-hiring requirements, Romero said.
Last time, finding qualified minorities made it hard to meet the requirements, he said.
The good news today is that the citywide school construction project has created more qualified minority workers, he said. The question is, whether those minorities will be too busy to work on the downtown building, he said.
There also was talk about the look of the building.
The architecture will be the almost exactly the same as the Voinovich Center. But it's uncertain if the reddish brick color will be carried over to the new building.
Identical color will make the block of West Federal look like it has one huge building, said Dave Kosec, a CIC staff member who handles construction issues. A different color, beige perhaps, will make each building distinct, he said.
Bill Binning, a property committee member, said the agency should get professional architectural opinions on what would look best for downtown.
rgsmith@vindy.com