TOMPKINSVILLE — Monroe County magistrates took only a few minutes Tuesday to award a design build contract for the second building of the Monroe County Family Wellness Center project.

The project was awarded to J&S; Construction, of Cookeville, Tenn., at a cost of $2,429,997 for a 17,751 square foot building, which will feature a six-lane swimming pool, a cardio fitness room and support facilities.

J&S; Construction was one of three companies to submit design build proposals for the project. Alliance Corporation, of Glasgow, and Venture Contracting Inc., also of Glasgow, offered proposals without specific cost amounts.

Representatives of each of the three companies were asked to make short presentations Tuesday and to be prepared to field any questions from either magistrates or members of the Wellness Center’s board of directors.

Following the presentations, Rita Crabtree, chairwoman of the Wellness Center’s board of directors, told magistrates the board’s executive committee met and reviewed all three proposals prior to Tuesday’s meeting.

“Now that we’ve also sat through their verbal proposals and questions and answers, we feel at this time J&S; has the strongest proposal based upon the building plans, square footage and the guarantee of no change orders,” she said.

Crabtree pointed out that J&S; Construction’s proposal offered eight showers, two of which are handicapped accessible, plus three sinks per counter.

“So to add some of these showers would be added expense, but they’ve already included that,” she said.

The executive committee also liked that the J&S; proposal contained more square footage for the cardio fitness room.

“Although I realize we can change some things around to make it work better for us, a lot of our members have requested more room than what we have at our current center. So, the larger the cardio fitness area, the better,” she said.

The executive committee said all three companies presented basically the same information regarding the swimming pool, HVAC system and insulation.

The fact that J&S; included 27 more parking spaces was a bonus.

“I know the parking spaces we have at the current building was supposedly for when both centers are fully functioning, but I feel that we do need those extra spaces so that when we do have ... a fully functioning center going and (swim) meetings going, those spaces will be needed,” Crabtree said, adding there would be no additional cost for the second parking area because it was included in the primary proposal.

One thing that did concern the committee was the company did not include lighting for the tennis courts.

“But they also recommended ways we could add energy efficient ways that we could add those lights and cost us less money. I do see that as an added expense,” she said.

Crabtree also said J&S; representatives were very professional with her and the committee.

“We feel they were all reputable. We feel any one of them would be good to work with. We will work with whomever you choose regardless of our recommendation,” Crabtree said. “As I said all three were very favorable to us as a board, but when you have to pick one over another our recommendation is J&S.;”

Magistrate Alonzo Ford said he personally thought J&S; had the best presentation.

Magistrate Jeff Proffitt had a similar response.

“I was pretty sold on J&S;,” he said.

It was pointed out during the meeting that Alliance was the only company that would charge an additional fee to fill in the construction site if soil is not adequate.

“I don’t have any problems with Rita’s decision,” said Magistrate Tim Gordon.

Gordon made the motion to accept the committee’s recommendation, which was seconded by Magistrate Terry Ford. The court voted unanimously to accept J&S; Construction’s proposal.