Withdrawn protest means construction of new county building moves forward

July 24, 2013 at 12:03a.m.

WARREN

The decision by Lakeland Management Systems of Painesville to withdraw its protest of a $2.3 million contract award means Trumbull County officials can move forward with construction of the Multi-Purpose Emergency Operations/Storage Center.

On July 1, commissioners awarded the construction contract to Murphy Contracting of Youngstown for the 20,000-square-foot facility behind the county engineer’s office at 650 North River Road.

Start of construction was delayed when Lakeland Management protested the contract’s being awarded to Murphy, whose bid was higher than Lakeland’s.

County officials said they chose Murphy’s bid because it was the better bid even though it was higher.

Though county officials had said several months ago the building would house the county vehicle-maintenance department, that part of the project is being shelved for now.

Instead, the facility will be the offices and garage space for the county emergency-management agency and secondary office and garage space for the sheriff’s office.

Architectural drawings depict space for the Trumbull County 911 to be housed there, but that part of the project won’t be carried out at this time. It could be added later, said Ernie Cook, county 911 director.

Linda Beil, county EMA director, said the EMA’s current location on the second floor of the terminal at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport isn’t handicapped accessible, not centrally located and doesn’t have space for vehicles to be stored, such as the mobile command post vehicle, used in large-scale emergencies.

The new facilities will provide phone banks, improved radio capabilities, a big-screen monitor and other equipment that helps personnel manage an emergency.

The garage facilities also will provide a place where training can be carried out, Beil said.

Having the county 911 offices near the EMA offices can help with emergency situations, and the vehicle-maintenance operation needs to move out of its current facilities on Panther Drive near Warren G. Harding High School because it is in bad condition, officials say.

EMA is providing $740,000 of the construction costs through a federal grant, and the county sold bonds to borrow the rest of the money.

The contract with Murphy calls for the construction to take no more than 270 days.