The rejection of the two bids received for construction of new classrooms and a baseball and softball complex at Weir High by the Hancock County Board of Education will not delay the projects according to  Jim Sauer of J.T. Sauer & Assoc.  A special meeting of the Board was held Monday night to either approve or reject the bids on the projects.  Superintendent Dawn Petrovich said that the bids received were “disappointing and very high” and recommended the Board reject the bids.    The Board concurred on a 5-0 vote.

           Sauer, who along with McKinley & Assoc. serves as a consultant for the  construction,  outlined a new approach.  The projects will now go out for bids using the “exact same process” but will be separated into smaller projects.  He noted that while construction of the “bricks & mortar” projects may be a job for a larger company and will go out on a standard bid,  projects like pouring concrete for a dugout at the baseball field or variable turf may be a projects that  may be  lucrative for a smaller, local company to bid on.    Those projects can go out under Direct Purchase Bids, a process he said was used at Wheeling Park      He also said that the bid process will also need to reach out to include Pittsburgh and  Eastern Ohio as well as local companies.

          Funding for the projects will come from Bond, County Levy funds and money received through CARES funding.