John Coffelt, Editor

St. John Engineering and its collaborative partner Hearth Architecture, PLLC was selected by the Capital Outlay Committee on Feb. 23 to design the proposed $6.5 million health department to be located at the Joint Industrial Park.

The design fees by St. John are estimated to be 3.75% of construction costs.

St. John Engineering will be the team lead. Stacy Slaubaugh and Joshua Thomson co-owners of Hearth Architecture will perform the architectural, the  

St. John beat out fellow finalist 342 Architects PLLC for the project.

342’s design services amounted to be 5.8% of total construction costs. This includes civil, structural, mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and fire protection intent engineers in addition to architectural services.

Chairman of Capital Outlay Dennis Hunt said that initially Scot St. John’s firm was inadvertently omitted from being invited to appear before the committee to present its interests in the project. The firm had pre-pandemic performed work related to the health department and has experience working with other companies in the Joint Park.

St. John and 342 responded promptly with the scope of services that the committee requested. The others were slow responding or did not respond.

From the discussion, one of the key factors was the state restrictions on choosing design firms for projects that use ARP Covid relief funds.

As St. John explained it, as opposed to regularly-funded project that don’t require bidding professional services, ARP projects require a selection process. He felt that the meetings related to these series of meetings fit those criteria. He noted that in a September request for qualifications related to the Wayside Acres project. St. John’s Engineering was selected and prequalified due to that request for proposal.

“You are going through that selection process, so we’re not here to say that we by any means think we’re the ones,” he said.       

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.