YOUNGSTOWN — The company that did repair work to the city hall fire escape submitted the apparent lowest proposal to replace it.

The city opened bids Friday from two companies wanting to do the replacement job. The proposal from Murphy Contracting Co. of Youngstown was $733,430 while AO Construction and Restoration Inc. of Youngstown’s bid was $861,682.

As long as a review of Murphy’s proposal doesn’t show any issues, the city’s board of control is expected Aug. 24 to award the company the contract, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.

Murphy cleaned and sandblasted the fire escape when city officials initially believed it just needed to be repaired.

The city already has given about $250,000 to Murphy for the work as well as to MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown for design work, Shasho said.

City council had agreed April 19 to spend up to $250,000 for the repair work.

When city administration officials determined in July that a replacement would be a better option, the cost climbed significantly.

City council, on July 31, agreed to allow up to $1.1 million to be spent on the project and allowed an “informal” bidding process to occur. That $1.1 million figure includes work already done to repair the fire escape and the design.

Between the $250,000 for repairs and design, and the $733,430 proposal, the cost quickly is approaching the $1.1 million maximum amount approved by council.

If it exceeds that, the administration again will ask council to amend the legislation, Shasho said.

“We should be under that” maximum amount, he said.

Shasho said a few times in July that the work should take about six months to complete.

He said Friday: “It’s fast tracked. We’ll go from there and in six months we’ll have a fire escape, hopefully sooner. It may be two months for erection and fabrication and hopefully it will cut down the time.”

There is no need for an emergency board of control meeting to award the replacement contract because MS is still finishing the design work on the galvanized steel fire escape, Shasho said.

“Until the design is done, work can’t begin,” he said. “We’ll get it done as quick as we can.”

It was discovered in early July that the fire escape was in worse condition than anticipated.

Repairing it would cost about $300,000 more so Shasho said he, Finley and Kevin Flinn, commissioner of buildings and grounds, recommended to Mayor Jamael Tito Brown that a replacement would be better long-term even though it would be more costly.

City officials announced March 9 that the fire escape would be shut down until work to it could be finished.

Because it’s the only other way to get in and out of the building besides the stairwell in case of a fire, city council moved all of its meetings from the sixth floor, where it regularly held them. The building’s two elevators automatically shut down when there’s a fire.

The concern is too many people attend council meetings and it would be dangerous to hold them in council chambers.

For the past five months, council meetings were held at either the Covelli Centre community room or the Mahoning County commissioners’ meeting room with the finance committee meeting the same day at the same locations. The next council meeting on Aug. 23 will be held at the commissioners’ meeting room.

Other committee meetings and city bodies have met elsewhere in city hall, mostly in conference rooms on the second or fifth floors, or at the Eugenia Atkinson Recreation Center.

The board of control has continued to meet on the sixth floor in the council caucus room.