Robert L. Green, senior project engineer for Gwin Dobson & Foreman Inc., said this bridge, located on South Penn Street, Punxsutawney, has been put out to bid for joint repair on the deck. (Photo by Larry McGuire/The Punxsutawney Spirit)

BROOKVILLE -- Bridges throughout Jefferson County received their annual inspection by Gwin Dobson and Foreman Inc., Jefferson County’s bridge engineers in the last month.

Robert L. Green, P.E., senior project engineer, reported on the inspections at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, and said he’s been running an ad for Bridge JC-13, located on South Penn Street, Punxsutawney, for joint repairs, and bids will be accepted for the project June 30.

Green said they’ve updated the bridge inspection list for the annual inspections of 13 county bridges.

“Due to improvements in condition, there are only 10 on the list,” Green said. “One of them had been improved and reanalyzed.”

• JC 1 -- The Dobson Road Bridge is in the preliminary design stage. There’s a meeting scheduled with the state this week about the project.

• The Big Run Bridge is currently under construction with a completion date of July 16, which is a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule.

Green said Palo Construction Inc. has done very well on the project.

• JC 17 -- Little Mill Creek Bridge is currently in final design and final right-of-way plans were completed. Green said he was going to deliver the plans to PennDOT for final signatures. Anticipated construction is spring 2009.

• JC-29 -- The Howe Bridge (Frozen Toe Bridge), plans have been reviewed by PennDOT’s central office and should be returned to PennDOT District 10 this week.  There’s one right-of-way left to be purchased. Green said the project could begin this fall.

• JC-32 -- Gilbert Road Bridge is currently in preliminary engineering. Anticipated construction date would be spring 2010.

In other business:

• Paul Corbin, Jefferson County commission chairman, said the commission is close to getting some agreements signed so courthouse employees can be relocated while the interior courthouse renovations take place.

“I’m not ready to reveal who they are at this time,” Corbin said. “By the next commission meeting July 9, we hope to have everything in place.”

Corbin said the announcement was put in the local newspapers concerning the bidding process for the courthouse renovations last Friday.

• Approval was given to extend the current contracts of several agencies that deal with Children and Youth Services (CYS) until the end of September.

Jim McIntyre, county commissioner, said there’s a new contract process that the state is putting into effect. “I don’t have all the details of that process, these extensions will allow more time to get the new process in place,” he said.

Brian Mowrey, CYS director, said this is the first time there was ever an extension on these contracts.

“The federal government has passed onto the state that there needs to be some language requirement cleanups in those contracts,” Mowrey said. “I think it’s a benefit to the county in the end, because it allows us to have better clearer contracts with the providers. They asked us to ask for extensions from all of these providers through Sept. 30. This way we can work with the state to try and get some of this language cleaned up.”

Mowrey said there are more contracts that he expects to have extensions with.