The Board of Commissioners awarded a contract to Newton County’s housing project at a meeting Tuesday.

Director of Newton County’s Development Services Scott Sirotkin began engaging with a new contractor to complete “work write ups” for the remaining five homes in need of rehabilitation.

The Institute for Building Technology (IBTS) is a contractor based out of Virginia with an inspector branch located in Macon, Georgia.

“IBTS was selected as the only responsive bidder and because they are very well qualified for the work,” Sirotkin said. “As I mentioned to the board, they were awarded a similar contract from the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission, and they have significant experience in developing the work write ups we need.”

Sirotkin said according to the company’s submittal, they have performed over 1,500 such write ups for similar federal housing programs.

The work write ups will detail everything that needs to be done before each home is sellable. These will give an estimated cost of each home’s rehab needs, so development services can evaluate those numbers and bid each home one at a time.

Sirotkin said at the meeting Tuesday they will bid each property one at a time to speed up the process of selling each.

He anticipates they will have IBTS within two or three weeks from when they give the notice to proceed.

“Our remaining obligations under the grant are to sell these homes to qualified households,” Sirotkin said of the remaining phase of the housing project.

Development Services then works with Habitat for Humanity to find potential buyers for the homes.

“Once the five homes are sold, we will most likely move to the closeout portion of the program.”

There is no timeline for the project, but Sirotkin said HUD and DCA (Department of Community Affairs) are still providing details on how closeout will work.

“As I understand it, it will be a process to ensure all our obligations are met and to execute the paperwork to bring the grant to a close. There is no deadline for closeout at this time.”

In 2009 Newton County’s NSP project was originally awarded $1,742,760. These funds were used to build Fairview Community Park and to purchase, rehabilitate and sell foreclosed homes.