GOSHEN—As workers remove the last piles of debris and begin the sanitation process ahead of the construction phase of the Orange County Government Center, the bids for the project were announced on Dec. 22.
The county received 25 bids with the intent to award four of them for different aspects of the project. The lowest bids totaled $52.2 million, about $5.5 million lower than what the county had budgeted for. County Executive Steven Neuhaus said he hoped the bids would be awarded in the next 30 days.
History
The Government Center was closed in 2011 by former County Executive Ed Diana after severe damage by hurricane Irene.
Neuhaus said a lot of the problems stemmed from years of neglect, but county officials said the poor design was also a problem. One cited hundreds of thousands of dollars in heating bills alone because of the poor insulation, and another joked that no one would put file cabinets near the windows for fear the box-like extensions would fall. After the facade was removed however, he said they did not find any cracks in the foundation.
