County to proceed with $3M ag center

CELINA - After months of second guessing, Mercer County commissioners on Tuesday finally pulled the trigger on a nearly $3 million agriculture center.

They also moved to foot the entire bill with American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Commissioners unanimously voted to award Westerheide Construction of Sidney a $2.9 million contract. They did not have a timeline but said under favorable conditions the center could be completed by the the end of the year.
  "We've had quite a bit of discussion on this in the past year so I'll go ahead and make a motion this morning to approve this recommendation by the project manager," said commissioner Rick Muhlenkamp.

"I'll say in one month of being here I've tried to get caught up to speed on three years of planing on a project," added commissioner Dave Buschur before seconding the motion.

Plans call for converting most of the 20,000-square-foot Cheryl Ann facility at 4980 Mud Pike into an ag center to house offices for the Soil and Water Conservation District, OSU Extension and United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. Commissioners envision a one-stop shop for farmers who often must visit one or more agencies.

It's the larger of two workshop buildings on the Mud Pike property, commissioners pointed out.

"VentureLINX is still going to operate their facility that is directly to the west there for their purposes," Muhlenkamp said about the provider of employment and other services in Western Ohio.

Commissioners accepted Westerheide Construction's base bid of $2.7 million plus six of its seven alternate bid items since the project came in within 10% of the engineer's estimate.

The county government is required by state law to provide space for OSU Extension at no cost, commissioners pointed out. However, both Mercer County SWCD and the federal FSA pay rent.

Commissioners and federal officials signed off on a 10-year-lease agreement for space within the center. Under the terms of the agreement, commissioners will pay the upfront costs to meet the federal government's specific building and utility demands or tenant improvements, such as additional exterior doors, electrical upgrades and supplemental power, elevators, raised access flooring, HVAC upgrades, speciality lighting, private restrooms and numerous other items.

Buschur said as a business owner, he crunched the numbers on the revenue to be generated from FSA's contributions.

"It looks to be about a ten-year payoff on their portion of the building," he said. "That does not count for OSU or soil and water but the FSA is carrying what would be expected, I guess, as a business opportunity on their portion of the building. Essentially they're covering just shy of a million dollars in costs on the project in ten years of rent revenue."

Laffin noted that the state matches up to $1 of every county dollar that goes to the soil and water district.

"We appropriate their dollars. Some of the dollars we do appropriate goes to cover a match for some rent for them," he said.

Moreover, Laffin reiterated that the county health district will not be asked to move from the Central Services Building at this time. Commissioners had earlier given health district officials until early 2024 to find a new home as they rearrange agencies within the building. The health district has occupied the current space rent-free for more than 20 years.

Commissioners on Tuesday morning also agreed to cover the cost of the ag center with ARPA funds. The county government has received two installments of ARPA funds totaling $7.9 million.

ARPA was designed to help states recover from the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S Department of Treasury had initially said the funds were to support public health; address negative economic impact to workers, households, small businesses and industry; replace lost public sector revenue; provide premium pay for essential workers; and be invested into water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

Since that time, the treasury has ruled the funds could be spent on standard government allowances up to $10 million, according to commissioners office administrator Kim Everman. That means the funds can be spent broadly on government services. They cannot, however, be applied toward debt or pension funds, she said.

"The project will enable the county to repurpose an existing county-owned facility," the resolution reads. "This will provide a one-stop center for agricultural-related services."

County auditor Randy Grapner and county clerk of courts Calvin Freeman both attended the morning session.

The ag center was conceived as the centerpiece of plan to provide additional space for increasingly cramped county offices and agencies. Now that commissioners have committed to the ag center, Grapner asked what the next step is in their overall plan.

Laffin said commissioners will request a study of all county buildings to determine how much space is needed at present and in the future. All county offices will be contacted to participate in the study which could take up to six months, he said.