Demolition, site work and new construction of a municipal facility in Lovingston, Virginia. Completed plans call for the demolition of a municipal facility; for the construction of a 9,403-square-foot municipal facility; and for site work for a municipal facility.

https://newsadvance.com/news/community/nelson-county-times/article_173d6c06-6f05-4215-8e9f-e7b3f25e472f.html Nelson board awards contract for new social services building A Lynchburg area company was awarded a contract Monday to construct the new Nelson County Department of Social Services building in Lovingston. The Nelson County Board of Supervisors voted to award a contract to Coleman-Adams Construction Inc. in Forest for the project that has been in the planning stages for years. The county recently received four bids within its $6 million budget for constructing the new building at 37 Tanbark Place in Lovingston, County Administrator Candice McGarry said at the board’s July 8 meeting. Supervisor Jesse Rutherford said the board unanimously voted at a special called meeting Monday to award the contract to Coleman-Adams at around $5.6 million. The overall project is $8.2 million for a building that will be about 9,400 square feet, according to a site plan presented to the board by PMA Architecture, the county’s consultant in the project, in May. An existing building at that site that most recently served as a restaurant will be demolished. Jeff Stodghill, president of PMA Architecture, recently said the project will have a “place for everybody” in the new building designed around the department of social services (DSS) functions and the location led to a lower cost than originally thought. The board previously considered another site on Callohill Drive in Lovingston on the opposite side of U.S. 29. He said the new building is being designed to make clients feel at home and at ease while receiving services from DSS staff and two ways in and out of the site will ease traffic congestion. Construction is expected to take 18 months, according to the project timeline. Corrective action plan report for DSS In a separate matter, McGarry reported to the board July 8 of the first corrective action plan the Nelson DSS leadership has held since the board sent a letter May 23 to the county department of social services raising concerns over an “inexcusable decline” and lack of transparency. The letter following a closed session in May was in response to “credible reports” the county received from key local partner agencies regarding the department’s “poor collaboration and communication” on several child protective services cases. According to a statement from the county DSS board, the cases in question all involved an overlap in services between law enforcement officers investigating potential abuse and neglect, and DSS assessment of the safety of the children involved. To determine the cause of the alleged lapses in care and communication, the Social Services board said it already commissioned and finalized an independent review, and some allegations proved to be unfounded, according to the agency’s statement. A sufficient number of concerns were validated, so a corrective action plan, or CAP, was developed by Virginia Social Services aimed at addressing deficiencies in the child protective services program, in-home services program, family engagement resources and foster care and adoption, the statement added. In addition to the CAP, “one or more” performance improvement plans were also deemed appropriate for certain department employees and the statement concluded a hope the measures “will bring about meaningful changes in the way we all cooperate in serving the citizens of Nelson County.” McGarry said the DSS board chair and Brad Burdette, director of the department, on June 26 met virtually with the regional DSS office team to go over the first month review of the CAP items. “Practice areas reviewed consisted of child protective services, foster care prevention and in-home services, permanency services and resource family services,” McGarry said. DSS staff is working through a referral case work backlog, completing courses of recommended training in these various areas, working to improve case assessments and documentation, including timely entering of case data into the various tracking systems and timely closing out of case files within those systems, McGarry told the board of supervisors. “Regional office staff provided guidance on improvement in each of these areas. Staffing was discussed, including adding another family services supervisor position,” McGarry said. Supervisor Jessica Ligon asked if the family services supervisor position is a new one. McGarry said a staff member in family services is on maternity leave and some county DSS staff left, which led to some contract staff being brought in, and the regional DSS felt a single family services supervisor was stretched thin, and more help was needed to spread out the workload. In response to a question from Ligon, McGarry said the June 26 virtual meeting seemed positive. “It was the first review, they found a lot of areas that needed improvement,” McGarry said. “I think they do have a lot of work ahead of them to get where they need to be. I think subsequent meetings will show a little bit more if they are making progress in these areas after going through the review.” Rutherford said he has fielded numerous public concerns about the county DSS, adding: “It’s still a situation we need to continue to monitor.” The next CAP review is July 24, McGarry said. Justin Faulconer, (434) 473-2607 jfaulconer@newsadvance.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The project generally includes: The project consists of redevelopment of approximately 1.6 acres of land and building at 37 Tanbark Plaza, Lovingston, Virginia in order to construct a new Social Services office building of approximately 9,400 square feet of gross floor area. The project includes demolition of the existing building, foundations, sign, paving and utilities as indicated. The project also includes the removal of asbestos according to a hazardous material management plan described in the Project Manual. The project also includes site work to create a new parking lot and circulation system on the site and related site improvements. In addition, there are improvements along the Right of Way along Main Street adjacent to the site. The County owns a separate site at 335 Callohill Drive, Lovingston, Virginia which will be made available for the use of storing materials and equipment related to the project during the project. The Nelson County Board of Supervisors reserves the right to reject any and all bids in whole or in part, waive any and all informalities, and disregard all nonconforming or conditional bids or counterproposals. Bids shall be accompanied by a certified check, cash or an acceptable bid bond in the amount of five (5) percent of the base bid for all bids over $100,000. Bidders must be licensed Class A contractors in the Commonwealth of Virginia The contract will be awarded on a lump sum base bid to the lowest, responsive and responsible bidder. The Nelson County Board of Supervisors reserves the right to award the contract in whole or in part. Nelson County is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The construction time from Notice to Proceed to achieve Substantial Completion is Five Hundred Twenty consecutive calendar days (520 days) and Final Completion is to be achieved Thirty consecutive calendar days (30 days) following Substantial Completion. Liquidated Damages of One Thousand One Hundred Dollars ($1,100.00) per day will be charged to the Contractor for failure to complete the work of the contract within the time provided for Substantial Completion and/or Final Completion. Modifications to Bids must be received by the County at the address where bids are to be submitted in writing in a sealed envelope and signed by the same individual submitting a bid prior to the Bid Opening. Any modification received in any other form will be not be considered. Any modification received after the bid opening will be invalid, rejected and not opened. Questions shall be referred in writing to the office of the architect, PMA Architecture, 10325 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, VA 23601 by email to apatel@pmaarchitecture.com , copied to jpiedra@nelsoncounty.org, and copy aspivey@nelsoncounty.org