When the lowest bid for construction of the new Sequoyah County Courthouse annex came in at $4 million — about twice as much as county commissioners had anticipated — it sent shockwaves through the county coffers.

Forty thousand dollars for mini-blinds didn’t help, but served as a deafening alarm that the project required renewed scrutiny.

And it didn’t take long after the commissioners’ September 29 meeting for a thorough review to occur.

“We had an opportunity to meet with our architect and the contractor that was low bid on that,” District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers reported at last Monday’s weekly commissioners meeting. “[State] statute actually allows us to go back and renegotiate the original bid and see if there’s room in there to maybe make some cuts, basically do a line item so that we can see where we may be able to help out a little bit and cut some costs. And we can do that up to 10% of what their bid was. Their bid was just shy of $4 million.

“Just sitting down with them for about 30 minutes or so, we had an opportunity, we did cut about 10% off that — we felt like there were some things we could probably address at a lot better cost,” Rogers said. “With that being said, I think we’re at a point now that we probably need to go ahead and make a decision and move forward with this project.”

In addition to what appeared to be abovemarket pricing for miniblinds, the commissioners discovered that shelving for the county treasurer’s and county clerk’s offices was not included in the bid, triggering an audit and reexamination of exactly what was included in the contractor’s bid.

Rogers had previously justified factors for the construction of the annex, which was that the courthouse had reached its maximum office space occupancy, and that storage space for important county records is currently at a premium.

The new annex, to be built at the corner of Chickasaw Avenue and Elm Street, is expected to relieve those concerns.

Additionally, the county was awarded American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026.

So when the commissioners decided to add a new 10,000-square-foot annex, the facility was expected to cost about $2 million. To that end, in December 2024, the county transferred ARPA funds of almost $2.5 million, allocating the money for the new county courthouse annex.

But when it became apparent the annex would cost about $4 million, the commissioners had renewed interest in keeping the cost down.

Rogers suggested the county may be able to do some of the dirt work and asphalting involved in the project in an effort to pinch pennies to make it work.

When the higher price came to light on Sept. 29, there was genuine hesitation about the county’s ability to proceed. But with some adjustments and creative savings, the commissioners now believe the math works.

They approved proceeding with the building project and awarding the bid, contingent on the state statute being provided by county clerk Julie Haywood or the district attorney’s office.

Other business

In other business Monday, the commissioners approved:

• Annual renewal of an interlocal agreement between District 1 and the town of Roland

• Eastern Oklahoma Circuit Engineering District retaining bridge inspection responsibility for the county

• Declaring as surplus for District 1 a 2010 Ford F150 pickup, 2009 Ford F450 pickup, Rhino mower, 2004 John Deere tractor, 18-foot Belshe trailer, yellow brush hog and welding trailer

• Purchase Card Program linking authorization form

• Appointing Julie Haywood as interim requisitioning officer for emergency management

• A review of bridge reports and invoicing by Eastern Oklahoma CED

• A transfer of appropriations for District 2 management and operations to capital outlay in the amount of $34,000