Jackson Co. Posts Bids For County Building, Fairgrounds

Bid requests for two long-awaited Jackson County projects have been posted.

County Mayor Randy Heady said the county is finally ready to take the next step on upgrading its County Fairgrounds and to do additional work at the new county annex building.

“You got to crawl before you can walk,” Heady said. “So at this point, this is the part where we’ve done all the homework, we’ve got the designs drawn, we’re at the point of putting it out for bid and hopefully the next step is moving into these places or renovating them.”

Heady said work at the fairgrounds will include central heating and air and improving accessibility. He said the annex building requires some renovations before the elections and county clerk’s offices move in.

Heady said there will be a pre-bid walkthrough at the building this Thursday. He said bids are due November 18th, after which the county commission will approve, and then work can begin. Heady said they have budgeted some $150,000 for fairgrounds upgrades. The county annex building renovations are projected to cost about $175,000.

“That project we’re actually doing with ARP money, so we’re going to wait and get the bids in, see if the bids are comparable to what we want and want to see,” Heady said. “And then we’ll be making a decision and hopefully doing a budget amend and moving forward with that.”

Heady said he’s hopeful tha both projects will move forward by the end of the month.