Courtesy of Withers Design Group
The planned Family and Children’s Resource Center, as shown, is a one-story building that will be constructed starting around March 1 next to the existing Children’s Resource Center, managed by The Village Network.
MOUNT VERNON — Knox County Commissioners approved a bid award Thursday of $1,900,200 to GreenHeart Companies of Boardman for construction of the Family and Children’s Resource Center.
The 7,600-square-foot family center will be located less than 40 feet from the Children’s Resource Center at 17606 Coshocton Ave. A construction contract should be signed within the next few weeks so that Greenheart Companies can break ground on the one-floor building by March 1, County Administrator Jason Booth said.
Greenheart’s total bid award of just over $1.9 million includes two alternate bid awards that will be part of the project: Trusses at a cost of $26,500, and stone veneer at $9,200. The county did not include the alternate bid cost of a generator, which Greenheart offered at $65,000.
Booth, however, said Greenheart’s bid award is low enough to leave a contingency of about $100,000. The county can decide later when construction is completed about adding a generator.
The Family and Children’s Resource Center will be managed by The Village Network, which also manages CRC. The two buildings are spaced less than 40 feet apart. The family center will be a day-use facility with two classrooms, office spaces and meeting rooms as well as a small outdoor play area. It will provide individual and group therapy and counseling, as well as family counseling. There will also be classrooms using an experimental model for youths. The existing parking area will be expanded.
The CRC, which opened more than 20 years ago, is a 12-bed residential treatment and foster care facility for youths ages 12 and above. Oversight of the facilities comes from the Knox County Department of Job & Family Services.
The family center will not have a fire alarm or a sprinkler system as the CRC does. Booth said this is because the family center is a day use facility only. There will be carbon monoxide monitors, said Roger Nash, project architect for Withers Design Group of Columbus. Commissioners also said the fire alarm is not necessary being a day use only facility.