By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

INDEPENDENCE - Construction of a much-anticipated 25,000-square-foot government center is to begin in early 2003 after city officials received 13 construction bids last week.

City Administrator Mark Wendling said he was pleased by the amount of interest in the project. Typically, similar construction efforts generate four to six bids from potential contractors.

Council is expected to award the project next month.

Project bids ranged from Century Construction's low bid of $3.8 million to a high bid of $5.3 million from Kerr-ADCM Inc.

Contractors also submitted alternates for a clock tower and a detention basin for storm water runoff, Mr. Wendling said.

If council awards a bid next month, as expected, construction of the municipal center at 5409 Madison Pike would begin immediately and be done by spring 2004.

With a 43.5 percent population jump between 1990 and 2000 - from 10,444 to 14,987 - Independence's service needs are outgrowing its office space.

Because of the cramped quarters at the nearby city building, the administrative staff often stores items in bathrooms and a conference room.

The police department, now housed in leased space on the second floor of the Kenton County courthouse in Independence, lacks storage space and a prisoner processing area. It also is not handicapped accessible.

"When (police) bring in someone to question them, they have no place to interrogate them," said Steve Simon, a resident who attended the first class of the Independence Police Department's Citizens Police Academy in 2000.

"When they have evidence, they have to put it in a large walk-in closet because they have no place else to put it. But the big thing is it's not accessible to the handicapped. (The police) definitely need new quarters."

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com