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The Harlan County Fiscal Court took action on bids for an animatronics display at the Portal 31 exhibit during a recent meeting.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley brought the topic to the attention of the court.

“We received the ability to proceed on that a couple of months ago,” Mosley said. “The rehabilitation project will start on Jan. 24.”

Harlan County Clerk Donna Hoskins opened the bid and read it to the court.
“This is from Communication Electronics Design (CED),” Hoskins said. “Project bid $1,395,000. This bid is valid for 90 days.”

Mosley said the project is part of a pilot project.

“This is part of an AML pilot project that we received several years ago, it was awarded in 2018,” Mosley said. “We didn’t get underway until well into 2019. The original budged anticipated the animatronics would cost in this ball park.” Mosley pointed out the grant for the project was for $2,550,000.

“We’ve spent presently $260,000, some of that went to engineering design,” Mosley said.

Magistrate Paul Browning pointed out the project has so far come in under budget.

“This one is really close to what was anticipated,” Mosley said. “It was going to be the bulk of the expense, redoing all of that and then moving the control room outside. It falls within the budget of the project.”

Mosley said if the court awarded the bid, the award would be contingent upon AML approval. Browning asked if there were any other bids submitted.

Hoskins advised the court no other bids had been submitted.

“I’ll ask for a motion to accept the bid from CED for $1,395,000,” Mosley said.

Browning made a motion to accept the bid, seconded by magistrate Clark “Sparky” Middleton.

The motion passed with no opposition.