Effingham County commissioners will decide on a renewal of the contract with OMI at their meeting this afternoon.

OMI, a subsidiary of CH2M Hill, has handled the county’s public works since 2001. It has supervised road and drainage maintenance service for the county for the last nine years, and the existing agreement between the county and OMI expires June 30.

The pact commissioners are reviewing is for four years, with an automatic four-year renewal.

“I think there is a potential to further negotiate,” County Administrator David Crawley said.

Commissioners have peered into the possibility of bringing its public works in house.  Crawley also laid out three options for the commissioners, including moving forward with OMI, re-negotiating with OMI or re-bidding the services. But he also cautioned commissioners of the impending renewal deadline.

“We’re coming down to the wire of needing to go forward with this,” he said. “Any decision has to be made almost immediately.”

If the county decides to re-bid the services, it could take several months for that to happen, Crawley warned.

John Beall of CH2M Hill told commissioners that OMI’s costs are in line with what they were in 2002. Because the contract is a cost-plus agreement — anything that is not spent over the cost of the contract is returned — OMI has rebated more than $1.1 million to the county since 2001.

“If we go over our costs, our management fee could be lost,” he said. “So there is some risk involved for us.”

Commissioners are weighing the value of the contract with a tightening budget.

“They have served us well, I think,” Verna Phillips said. “It would be prudent for us to at least look at negotiating with them. I think our past experience has been a good one.”

Commissioner Bob Brantley, however, said there has been an issue with road work service.

“There are some things that, to me, are just not being done,” he said. “It’s putting more work on (Crawley) to get those things done. The budget has brought a lot of this to light.”

OMI said it would discuss those issues with the commissioners.

“Our intention is to make a decision,” Chairman Dusty Zeigler said.