Carbon County officials are hoping that the third time will be the charm to secure contractors for a project that aims to help homeless women.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners ratified a motion to advertise for bids for general and electrical contract for work at Peaceful Knights Women’s Shelter in Lehighton. Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein was absent.

This is the third time the board has advertised for contracts. The first time only a plumbing bid was received. The next time, no bids for the remaining two contracts came in.

The county is involved in the project because it is using $163,000 of Community Development Block Grant COVID funds to complete the work at the new shelter. The money was initially awarded to Family Promise of Carbon County, but delays in their plans caused the county to shift the funds to Peaceful Knights.

The action differed from the previous discussion the board had last week after the second failed attempt at receiving bids. At that time, the commissioners said they could now bypass the bidding process based on county code.

This, Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said on Thursday, was not the case since federal money is being used.

Because of that the county is required to follow federal guidelines, meaning the bidding process must again be followed.

Lukasevich said the county was hopeful because three bid packets had already been picked up from the office of Planning and Development, a change over the last two rounds of bidding.

He added that the state also said that it will allow for an extension to the deadline for the project, but the county has not yet received the official date. Previously, the grant period expired on Sept. 29, meaning contractors would have had to bid, been accepted and had the work completed by then or the county would lose the money.

This deterred some contractors from bidding, Commissioner Rocky Ahner said, adding that the county is grateful that the state is willing to provide a little extra time for the project.

He noted that some contractors may bid and then subcontract out to local, smaller companies to get the work done, meaning more work for locals.

The location of the new women’s shelter will be at 131-133 N. First St., Lehighton, a building Peaceful Knights purchased several years ago with the hopes of helping more people.

The commissioners will hold a special meeting at 11 a.m. on Sept. 18 to open the bids for the homeless shelter contracts. The board will also act on the bids at that meeting.