Owens awards $2.6M in bids, OKs contracts

5/8/2009

The Owens Community College awarded contracts Tuesday for $2.6 million in road and parking lot improvements at the former Penta Career Center.

The board also approved three-year contracts with two unions.

The main contract for Penta renovation was awarded to Miller Brothers Contracting for $1.7 million; Hank's Plumbing and Heating for the heating, cooling, and plumbing for about $412,000, and Colgan Davis got the bid for electric work for $247,000.

The combined $2.6 million was about $700,000 less than expected.

The new contracts for the Owens Support Staff Union Local 6325 and Owens Federation of Safety and Security Employees include health-care concessions and modest salary increases.

The 88 support staff employees and 22 safety and security employees will see their health-care contributions increase from $540 for singles to $588 a year and from $1,200 to $1,308 for families. The employees will pay more in drug co-pays.

The support staff will get a 2.5 percent salary increase and the safety and security employees will get a 3 percent increase. The new contracts expire Dec. 31, 2011.

Mike Schmitz, vice president of the support staff union, addressed the board, saying the membership accepted the contract because of the negative state of the economy in general, but did not believe that Owens was in poor financial shape and in need of the concessions.

The health-care concessions are the same the nonunion employees took in March with no salary increases, said John Satkowski, Owens' vice president of business affairs and chief financial officer.

The college is in mediation with the Owens Faculty Association over its contract.

The trustees also named a director for the Learning Center at The Source.

Willie Williams, 39, who was previously unit director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Toledo, will be paid $49,000. His start date is retroactive to April 23. He replaces Kita Graham, who resigned for a job out of state.

The May meeting was the first for the newest trustee William Takacs, 58, president and managing partner for the law firm Gallon, Takacs, Boissoneault & Schaffer.