The price tag for building the new Greene County Animal Facility disappointed lots of people.

At the most recent Jefferson City Council meeting on November 24th, the lowest bid was $1,007,000. Project Organizer Don Orris shared his reaction at the Council meeting about the bids that were almost twice what the architect firm, Atura Architecture anticipated of $450,000-$500,000. 

“I was just very depressed after we got the bids. I thought how are we ever going to accomplish this? The reason I went to the metal building, the reason I made all the cuts, the reason why I’m not doing the odor work in the building, all those things was to get the building built.”

Orris said some of the possible reasons for the higher-than-expected bids included $200,000 to re-do the dirt work of the donated lot in the Greene County Development Corporation West Business Park, along with contractors being overwhelmed with work to not properly bid the project, to higher bid amounts of the odor control system and utility hookups. 

Orris talked about what could happen with the over $600,000 of donations and pledges that have been made if the bids don’t reach the $450,000-$550,000 range.

“Then I’m obligated to give the money back to the people who tried to raise it in the beginning. I’m going to do my best to give it all back to those people, if we cannot make this an endgame, if we cannot get a building built.”

Following the Council’s rejection of the five submitted bids, the plans include working with the architect firm to figure out the issues before re-bidding it by February or March of next year.