DARKE COUNTY — At Monday’s meeting, Darke County Commissioners approved Mote and Associates to design and engineer the courthouse front steps. John Cook, facility and safety manager, said an advertisement was posted on March 16, asking architect and engineering firms to give a statement of qualifications to design the front steps on the courthouse entrance.
“We had five responses. Five firms provided a statement of qualification,” said Cook.
Out of those five firms, Freytag and Associates from Sidney, Garmann Miller, from Minster, Mark Lechy Architects, LLC, from Columbus, Mote and Associates, Inc, from Greenville, and RDA Group Architects, LLC, from Dayton, three were selected to interview.
On March 28, Freytag and Associates, Inc, Garmann Miller, and Mote and Associates each made presentations to the commissioners and Cook. They all agreed that Mote and Associates were the best choice for the historic renovations to the courthouse entrance.
“We’ve had experience with Mote,” said Commissioner Mike Rhoades. “The biggest thing that helped us out is they have an idea of what the history is, [and what] the period setting for the courthouse steps should be. Another thing, they know where the sewer line is.”
Rhoades said it would save time and money to go with Mote and Associates because some of the other companies did not know where the sewer line was and they were hoping to finish the project by the end of 2018. That was not the only deciding factor, though.
Commissioner Matt Aultman said Mote and Associates gave several examples of past projects they had designed. They had a variety of options for the courthouse steps.
“There’s some interesting concepts they’re bringing to the table,” said Aultman.
Commissioner Michael Stegall was impressed by how much knowledge they had on the history of the courthouse.
“They’ll come up with some interesting designs that will be historically correct.”
In other business:
Commissioners approved the resignation of Merri Nickamp from the Darke County Visitor’s Bureau. They also approved Scott Hartings to be moved from his current position to At Large position and Gloria Keller-Brinley to be moved to the Attraction capacity.
Tammy Bergman, Community Development/Grants Coordinator, requested the release of a mortgage loan for Habitat for Humanity. She said the loan was a 10-year-loan, starting on March 22, 2008, and after 10 years, was available for release. The loan was $20,000 with zero percent interest. The Commissioners approved the release of the loan.
The next meeting is on Wednesday, April 4 at 1:30 p.m.
