photo by: Emma Delk

Moundsville Mayor David Wood questioned whether the indoor recreation center project would have a general overseer during Tuesday's city council meeting.

Moundsville City Council members unanimously authorized City Manager Rick Healy to enter a contract with The Thrasher Group for architectural and engineering services for the Indoor Recreation Center on Tuesday.

Thrasher will provide architectural and engineering services for the project for 7% of the $4 million project construction costs, totaling $280,000. The city will work with Thrasher to design and prepare bid packages for the recreation center.

The approximately 20,300-square-foot facility will be located at the former Sanford Center property. The recreation center will include two full-size basketball courts, batting cages, a walking trail, a community room, a party room, a concession area, showers and locker rooms.

Healy informed council members that the agreement with Thrasher includes developing the site plan through to the technical specifications. Thrasher will create architectural and structural plans for mechanical, electrical and plumbing services.

Thrasher will also prepare all necessary documentation for permits and approvals for the building, including those required by the fire marshal. Healy said the city would handle the bidding documents and the construction administration for the project.

“The only thing that the agreement does not include is geotechnical reports for the site, which we have already completed,” Healy said. “We’ll forward that to Thrasher. Any inspection or material testing and any environmental studies will be done by other companies, so those are not included in Thrasher’s plan.”

Thrasher’s expected time frame for the project is a month to work on conceptual design revisions, three months for construction documents, one month for bidding and then an eight-month construction phase. Healy said early 2026 is the target date for construction to begin on the project.

“Those dates are all obviously flexible for a lot of different reasons, so this is pretty much a complete package from them,” Healy said. “This would allow us to move forward to the next phase of getting the documents we need to get at least ready to bid.”

In response to a question from Mayor David Wood, Healy confirmed there would be a general overseer for the project. He said they had met with one company interested in the role, and that the company would be “on board early enough” to review all of the plans and specifications. Healy added that officials are negotiating contract costs with the company and that the information would be provided to the council “in the next month or so.”

In other business, council members also unanimously approved awarding Stephens Auto Center the 2025 Police Cruiser Bid. The bid will cover the purchase of two new SUV police cruisers, priced at approximately $45,000 each.

Healy also informed council members that the projected early move-in date and substantial completion dates for the municipal building project will be pushed back “roughly three months.” The target move-in date was originally the end of August to early September, and the target substantial completion date was Oct. 31.

Healy attributed the delay to an underestimation of the amount of work the new contractor, Great Lakes Restoration, had to complete after taking over the project from the original contractor, &build. Great Lakes Restoration took over the project after &build ceased work on the project and subsequently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Healy said Great Lakes hired Grae-Con Construction as a consultant to assist with workflow and subcontractors, as this was “where the problems were coming in.”

“We were informed by the general contractor that while the progress is being made, it is slower than originally anticipated,” Healy said. “They’re doing a lot of work on it, but the date we will be able to get into the building and the ultimate completion date will have to be pushed back some.”