POMEROY — The Meigs County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities will seek bids for a $300,000 addition to Carleton School.

The money necessary for the project has been approved at the state level, but past attempts to sell the project have been thwarted by high costs. Executive Director Kay Davis met with Meigs County Commissioners Thursday to seek approval to advertise for bids on a scaled-down version of the project.

The latest building proposal would involve addition of 2,040 of classroom space, a speech therapy room and a sensory room. Renovations to existing space would include converting three smaller classrooms into two and construction of a restroom.

The addition would serve three integrated special education pre-school classes serving approximately 30 children, Davis said.

“The project will be beneficial to not only the school, but also the community during these difficult economic times,” Davis told commissioners. “It will be good to see growth in our community and to have construction opportunities available to area contractors and workers.”

The Ohio Department of MR/DD first awarded the funding to the local board. The money is earmarked solely for construction or renovations of early childhood programs and can only be used for that purpose, Davis said.

Commissioners awarded a bid to Eagle Electrical Services, in the amount of $6,500 for electrical work at the Portland Community Center horse arena. The project will be funded through the Community Development Block Grant formula program, administered by county commissioners.

Commissioners also:

• Approved a bid from Asphalt Materials, Inc., Marietta, for bituminous materials for April, and referred the bid to Engineer Eugene Triplett.

• Met in executive session with Chris Shank, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, regarding personnel action.

• Approved an amendment of a contract between DJFS and the University of Rio Grande Crossroads program, to increase contracts by $10,000 each for the Workforce Investment Act Younger Youth and Older Youth programs, for a total of $124,192.05.

• Approved payment of bills in the amount of $150,318.59.

Attending were Commissioners Mick Davenport, Thomas Anderson and Michael Bartrum, and Clerk Gloria Kloes.