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Youngstown hires company for exterior work on future courthouse
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s board of control approved a $392,160 contract for a Cleveland company to do extensive exterior work to the future home of Youngstown Municipal Court.
The board voted Thursday to hire VIP Restoration for the job. VIP’s proposal was the least-expensive of the 10 received by the city.
“We received a lot of interest in the project, and that resulted in competitive prices,” said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department.
The city’s estimated price for the work was $606,000. Only two of the 10 proposals were greater than the estimate.
The work includes replacing, repairing, patching and resetting bricks and stones on the City Hall Annex building on the corner of Market and Front streets.
The work will begin in March or April, depending on the weather, and take up to 120 days to finish, Shasho said.
The overall estimated cost to transform the annex into the courthouse is $7,750,000.
The rest of the project will be included in one proposal with the city expected to select a general contractor next month, Shasho said.
The project is scheduled to be finished by late 2017.
Municipal court is on the second floor of city hall. Judges have complained about the conditions of the court for about 15 years.
The judges filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court in 2009 over the court’s conditions, including that it isn’t clean, isn’t adequately heated and air-conditioned, is too small, and unsafe as there’s no way to keep witnesses separate from those in the courtrooms.
An agreement was reached in June 2015 among the city’s three branches of government to relocate the court and the clerk of courts to the annex.