The contract top construct a new livestock facility at the Highland County Fairgrounds was awarded to Perkins Carmack Construction at the weekly Wednesday meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners.

Commissioner Jeff Duncan said the bid would include all four aspects of the proposed project including supplying of the steel building and erection, the concrete foundation for the building, a concrete slab and then electrical work. He said the building would measure 125 feet, by 225 feet, by 15 feet with a four-inch concrete wall.

Nicole Oberrecht, the county’s ARPA funding coordinator, said that the final completion date was scheduled to be Aug. 1, 2023. Commissioner Terry Britton said the project is expected to be ready by the next fair “barring hiccups.”

Duncan said the process has been slow because it’s funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars and the county needs to make sure it has everything in order.

He also said that the old dairy barn, the hog barn and the sheep barn would be removed, with the new facility taking the place of the old ones.

In other news, the board of commissioners awarded the bid for an environmental review for the Marriott Hotel to Verdantis for $5,000.

Julie Bolender, director of Highland County Economic Development, said there were two quotes to decide from between Verdantis and Tetra Tech. She said there was a $10 difference between the bids, but the bigger difference was that Verdantis’ bid included a site visit to the proposed location while Tetra Tech’s only included a desk review.

The board of commissioners also moved to give Oberrecht authority to apply for funds for HB 687, pertaining to new funding for local jails. Commissioner Dave Daniels said the deadline to apply for the funding is Nov. 30, and that the county is putting proposals together with input from the Highland County Sheriff’s Office.

Concerning a possible records storage building, Britton said McCarty Associates sent another set of drawings last week which had some drop-ins where aspects of the facility would be placed. He said the commissioners sent that drawing to its record storage committee and that pretty much all of them were “in favor of how they had it” with the preliminary drawings. He also said he thought they were pretty close to starting to get it ready for bid, but that its timeline would “take a while” and that it would be going pretty much all next year.

Daniels said there are two parts to the project — the building and reviewing the records themselves and how they would be moved to the new facility. He said they would need to go through them and find what they need and what they don’t need.

Highland County Auditor Bill Fawley delivered the estimated resources for 2023. He said the total estimated resources for the next year would be $13.2 million, with the following revenue: real estate property taxes $2 million, permissive sales tax $8.6 million, casino revenue $600,000, local government funds $225,000, fees $900,000 and other receipts $875,000.

Duncan also said the board received a request for a liquor license at Corner Market in Greenfield. He said he thought it amounted to a change in ownership and the request for public comment would take a week. People can send comments to commissioners’ office.

Duncan also said the new sales tax receipts for November just came in and they were again better than last year. He said they were $773,514, $36,913 better than last year, with the year-to-date total now at $,451,320, $415,080 better than this time a year ago.

“So, that’s good news,” Duncan said. “That number continues to hold. That’s great.”

In other news, there were three resolutions approved by the board of commissioners:

* Res. No. 22-196 is an approval for the reappointment of Paul Pence to the Board of Developmental Disabilities for a four-year term.

* Res. No. 22-197 is a determination that a 1990 Chevrolet C/K 2500 and 1991 Ford F-450 SD are not needed for public use and are obsolete or unfit for the use for which they were acquired.

* Res. No. 22-198 is a request for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds in the amount of $30,000.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.