PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission awarded the contract for the demolition of the former Wood County Sheriff’s Department/Wood County Maintenance Department building at the corner of Second and Avery streets.

The commission, on Thursday, unanimously awarded the contract to Tim Graham Excavating of Parkersburg for $49,500 for the demolition of the building located at 328 1/2 Second St. which was still over the submitted lowest bid of $43,000 from JC Bosley Construction in Parkersburg. Empire Builders in Parkersburg submitted a third bid of $155,000.

Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer said the Bosley bid specified that any asbestos removal would increase the price. Inspectors were scheduled to go into the building on Thursday to do testing for asbestos.

With demolition of buildings, contractors are required to deal with and remove the asbestos, officials said.

“The lowest bidder did not specify the cost to remove the asbestos,” Commission President Blair Couch said. “If asbestos shows up, they will then add another dollar amount to their bid.

“That is not a good place to be.”

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said he wanted to take the next lowest bid from Graham because the asbestos removal was already figured into the bid price.

“I would rather take the next bid, because it is a firm bid,” he said.

Colombo was afraid the cost of Bosley’s bid would escalate beyond what Graham had proposed and end up costing the county more.

“In regarding the taxpayers’ money, I want a hard and fast number that is secure,” he said. “That enables us to protect the taxpayers’ money.”

In other business, Sydney Weber, Director of the Wood County Resiliency Center, appeared before the commission to show the new website for the center and its meeting spaces which has been named “The Center on Market” to promote its use as a meeting/gathering venue.

The website includes a video of the building highlighting what is available in the space. The website makes it clear there are five meeting rooms, their capacities and what the capacity would be if they had round tables set up for dinners which Weber said was a regularly asked question.

There are links to other groups, like Downtown PKB, that detail activities in the area so people know what is happening around the area. Recently they had a group that was able to purchase tickets to the recent Downtown Throwdown event.

Weber talked about making her contact information readily available because a delay in a response could cause people to seek out another venue.

Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard said the building has been utilized for a lot of public safety training which has brought in people from all over the country.

“That building has been really successful with that training,” he said.

The response from people who have used the center has been positive, Weber said.

“I think they like it a lot,” she said. “Everyone who uses it always says they are going to come back. I don’t think anyone has had a negative experience who has used it when they have booked a meeting or event with us.”