CANFIELD — The Mahoning County Career and Technical Center Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to approve J. Herbert Construction Co. of Salem as the contractor that will build the new Medical Wellness Center on campus.

Superintendent John Zehentbauer said the intent is to break ground this month.

In June, the state announced $88.9 million for 11 projects from the Appalachian Community Innovation Centers Program. Four projects are school-based community wellness, education and career development centers, of which one is the Medical Wellness Center at MCCTC.

The career center received $5,030,815 for a new 12,000-square-foot building at its Canfield campus to house a health care facility, expand health care-related education programs, and new classrooms and teaching labs. It also will include two classrooms for its adult workforce and space for mental health and health care partners, according to Zehentbauer.

J. Herbert won the bid for the new center at $5,990,000. The company was one of nine bidders for the project, with bids ranging from $6.3 million to $6.8 million.

“The estimate was at $7.1 million,” Zehentbauer said. “All nine bids came in under that amount.”

The J. Herbert bid also included additional alternates of $990,000 for a classroom extension and $11,000 for the use of rubber tile.

Grant Mingus, vice president of J. Herbert Construction, attended.

“We are a non-union company,” he said. “We will be paying the prevailing wages on the project as required by the federal government.”

He said the prevailing wages are one way to even the playing field for union and non-union contractors.

J. Herbert is already working at the MCCTC campus on the school expansion project. He said the steel for that job is due to arrive the first week of April and the project is expected to be completed next summer.

Zehentbauer said the new facility will enable MCCTC to expand on its medical programs. He said once up and running, a medical student could do their internship at the new center. The center also would offer health services to those with no or low income.