County commissioners awarded contracts Wednesday to finish the interior construction of the annex on the north side of the county government building.

The annex, built in 2015, houses the county Children and Youth Services department and the Human Services Department on the first and second floors.

A lower floor in the annex never was finished and is the space to be completed through the bids approved Wednesday.

The upcoming work means the building will be completed and ready to house the county planning offices, including mapping and assessment.

Total cost for the project is nearly $624,000.

County Commissioner Leslie Osche said she is not sure why the annex, a project of the previous board of commissioners, was designed with extra space.

“We came in and looked at it,” Osche said “It seemed logical to try to bring (planning, assessment and mapping) together in one place,”

John Campbell, the county director of facilities and operations, said the work will begin soon and should be wrapped up by February.

The general contractor, United Contractors of Brookfield, Ohio, will be paid $289,200 to finish the job.

United was the lowest bidder, with the next highest bid coming in at $343,000. The highest general contractor bid was almost $539,000.

The electric contract was awarded to Bronder Technical Services of Prospect, which came in as the lowest bid at $194,500.

Two more Ohio-based firms were awarded contracts as the lowest bids. Independence Excavating of Independence was awarded the bid for plumbing at $48,000, and S.A. Communale of Youngstown had a low bid of $17,980 for the fire protection contract.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning will be installed by Hranec Corp. of Uniontown at a low bid of $73,850.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel praised Campbell for defining a specific scope of work for each contract, which Boozel said netted savings for the county.

“The bids came in much lower than anticipated originally,” Boozel said.

The estimated cost of the project originally was $900,000 to $1 million.

Osche said having the three offices in the same space will allow them to share support staff and better handle people coming in for planning issues.

“It will make it more efficient and more customer-service friendly,” Osche said.

Likewise, the commissioners are in discussions with the county's row office leaders to hammer out the best use for the spaces being vacated by planning, which is on the fifth floor of the government building, and mapping and assessment, which are on the first floor.

She said the county controller and district attorney have mentioned they need more space, but the commissioners also have the goal of increasing the flow of foot traffic throughout the building while maintaining safety.

“This is all preliminary, but we're exploring space needs and how we might better position (departments) to be more customer friendly while maintaining safety throughout the building,” Osche said.