The county has reached a settlement with Jasper Lumber concerning the Daviess County Government Center. The new building’s construction was been stalled due to issues with the contractor who was let go last year because of what county officials deemed unsatisfactory performance. It was announced at Tuesday’s Daviess County Commissioners meeting that the county will pay Jasper Lumber $100,000 to walk away. Also the agreement called for no mention of termination of the company by the County. County Attorney Grant Swartzentruber called it a good deal.
County Commissioners President Nathan Gabhart was also pleased with the agreement saying the easy thing to do would’ve been to let Jasper Lumber continue and the annex would’ve been completed and opened last summer. However, he said that in ten years a new set of commissioners would’ve had to deal with failing walls and cracking tiles. He says the process has been very transparent with an annex update at every meeting and the commissioners took the public scrutiny throughout the tedious process. Gabhart says they are excited to move forward.
