Chief's brothers win bid for rental

The lowest bids were $20,000 less than the last offer.
& lt;a href=mailto:siff@vindy.com & gt;By STEPHEN SIFF & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A company owned by Trumbull County Board of Health chairman Scott Thompson's brothers is the lowest bidder for a $750,000 contract to rent the county space for the health department.
"I didn't really know that they opened bids yesterday or they put a bid in," said Scott Thompson. "This is something they do on the side. I don't have anything to do with it."
Awarding the health department lease to the 927 Company, owned by Robert and Dave Thompson, would probably not present any legal problems because the company participated in an open bidding process, said assistant prosecutor Jason Earnhart, who represents the health department.
Bids were opened Monday and will be reviewed by the prosecutor's office before any decisions are made, County Administrator Tony Carson said.
Earnhart, health commissioner Dr. James Enyeart and the health board will not participate in evaluating the different proposals for their office in order to avoid any potential conflict, Carson said. They would have participated otherwise, he said.
Second solicitation
This is the second time this year the county solicited bids for health department offices. The first time, only one company, Parker-Porter Ltd., offered to rent the county space. Carson recommended rejecting its offer. Commissioners did, after following the prosecutor's advice to at least negotiate with Parker-Porter Ltd.
"I felt I put my reputation and the commissioners' on the line," Carson said. "I said we would get a lower bid, and we did, and I said we would get a lower price, and we did."
The bid submitted by the 972 Company to lease the health department a building on state Route 193 in Vienna would cost taxpayers about $75,388 a year, about $20,000 less than the bid commissioners rejected from Parker-Porter.
Parker-Porter's bid was second lowest, about $3,000 more per year than 927 Company for a building across from the county jail on North Park Avenue.