BUCKHANNON – The Upshur County Commission has voted to establish a committee that will evaluate several proposals from companies looking to formulate a master plan for a future recreational complex.
The Upshur County Commission on Thursday voted to form a committee to evaluate the six proposals they received from various planning and design firms throughout West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The commission approved a Request for Qualifications during their Nov. 10 meeting. The RFQ master plan will create a roadmap for the county’s future recreational complex on the 70.87 acres of land donated by the J.F. Allen Company along the Old Weston Road. The commission accepted proposals until 4 p.m. Dec. 9.
The property is located directly across from Red Rock Road along Old Route 33, and the commission has a vision for the property that includes several athletic fields and potentially an indoor facility. Upshur County Commission president Kristie Tenney initially announced the endowment during the Oct. 27 commission meeting, and during their Dec. 15 meeting, commissioners received an update from Upshur County Administrator Tabatha Perry.
“A Request for Qualifications was published as a legal advertisement in The Record Delta and The Charleston Gazette and submissions were due Dec. 9,” Perry told the commission. “We received proposals from the following firms: Civil and Environmental Consultants, Inc. out of Bridgeport, West Virginia; Chapman Technical Group of Buckhannon; The Thrasher Group of Bridgeport, West Virginia; McKinley Architecture and Engineering of Charleston, West Virginia; Terradon Corporation of Poca, West Virginia; and DRS Architects out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”
She said a committee of five representatives would be formed to evaluate each statement of qualifications and performance data to narrow it down to a top three. Each proposal will be given to each member of the committee, and they will each rank them, which will determine the final three firms that will be interviewed.
“Interviews will be conducted, and then the committee will rank them in order of preference, so who you deem the most highly qualified to provide the services required,” Perry said.
“These will be disbursed amongst each of you with evaluation criteria, so you can review them at your convenience, and once the committee selects three firms, our office will schedule those interviews, so we should have more information in January as to when those will be scheduled,” Perry said.
All three commission members are able to be on the committee or just two of them.
“I would assume all three of you would want to be on the committee; two or more of you would participate and then the interviews would be scheduled on a Thursday during a commission meeting, or we could schedule a special meeting,” Perry said.
All three commissioners decided to be on the committee, and commissioner Sam Nolte made suggestions for the other two positions.
“[Upshur County Parks and Recreation Director] Jeremiah McCourt, I think, is a no-brainer and I think Mitch Shaw, the representative for the Upshur County Recreational Complex, is another good choice,” Nolte said. “This has been their dream all along, so it would be nice to keep them more involved. They’ve already done quite a bit of work themselves, and they have some knowledge that might be useful and helpful in this process.” The commission agreed on both candidates and voted to officially form the committee.
