LISBON — Commissioner Tim Weigle said Wednesday the commissioners are staying with the original plan of hiring a design-build firm to both design and construct the new Columbiana County archives/records storage building.

The idea of seeking an architect is out.

Ads had already run seeking qualifications of design-build firms and the packages were due Wednesday, but Weigle said the deadline for submissions has been extended one week to Sept. 4.

He explained that after the original ad was published for design-build firms, a representative of ms consultants, the firm which did preliminary plans for the building, said the county should advertise for an architectural firm.

In response to that, Weigle announced the change in plans.

But then came the phone calls from design-build companies and even from ms consultants saying to do design-build.

“We got a lot of feedback from people who put a lot of time and work into preparing a proposal,” Weigle said.

He said at least nine design-build firms are working on plans and at least four of the companies called to vent their frustration over the announced change to architectural firms. So the decision was made to remain with design-build.

“We’re going to go ahead and stay the course,” Weigle said.

An addendum was issued for the ad showing the scoring process to get to the top three design-build firms, then there will be interviews, he explained.

The building will be constructed at the former location of the county Department of Job and Family Services, which is now a vacant lot.

The county-owned lot is bordered by East Chestnut Street to the north, North Nelson Avenue to the west and North Jefferson Street to the east.

Referring to the building as a records retention facility, Weigle previously said that any records the county is required by law to keep will be moved to the new building from the various locations where they’re currently stored, such as the basement of the county jail and Iron Mountain, an underground secured storage facility in Pennsylvania.

According to Weigle, plans call for construction of a two-story, 24,600-square-foot, climate-controlled, secure block and brick building with a dry chemical fire suppression system, a commercial shredder and office space. He also said it will be designed with a freight elevator. The front of the building will face East Chestnut Street.

In other business, commissioners awarded the contract to replace the Calcutta pumping statin to S.E.T., Inc. of Lowellville, the low bidder at $1,166,266. The only other bid for the project came from Rudzik Excavating of Youngstown for $1,833,994. The pumping station serves all of Calcutta.

Columbiana County Chief Deputy Sanitary Engineer Troy Graft said funding was coming from the Ohio Public Works Commission and the American Rescue Plan Act.

Commissioners on Wednesday approved an ARPA expense of $250,000 for the project.

Commissioners also authorized the county engineer to apply and sign an application for the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association Regional Transportation Planning Organization Capital Allocation Program to seek $400,000 for the Calcutta Smith Ferry Road project.