Mitchell County will begin negotiations with a new architect for its sheriff’s office construction project, the commissioners decided unanimously on Monday, May 2.
County Manager Allen Cook and County Attorney Dean Grindstaff have been working alongside former County Attorney Lloyd Hise, who is serving as the project manager.
After sending out the request for proposals, two architectural firms emerged as frontrunners— Knoxville-based Cope and Charlotte-based Moseley.
During an April meeting, county officials tabbed Cope as the primary choice but during contract discussions, Cope officials didn’t agree to take care of the necessary geotechnical engineering, Cook said. The county’s RFQ stated that the selected firm would cover geotechnical engineering.
“Apples to apples, we need that to be part of the deal,” Cook said. “That’s what we went out and asked for. That’s an extra cost for the county.”
Cope does not have anyone capable of doing a geotechnical engineering report, either on staff or as a consultant, Cook said.
Cope is already working with local firm Cook Engineering on the proposed new school project.
Moseley now emerges as the primary architect. County officials will meet with Moseley officials to attempt to iron out an agreement and discuss the scope of service.
If the two sides can’t reach an agreement, the project would return to the RFQ phase and proposals would again be accepted.
“I would be optimistic that Moseley would have a good chance of maybe getting that,” Cook said. “We don’t need to be paying for that with our county funds. It was in our RFQ.”