The Calvada Eye, for now, will remain the quiet domain of the ducks and the picnickers.

Nye County commissioners Tuesday rejected bids for the renovation of the Calvada Eye building into administration offices and the old apartment complex into offices for the Nuclear Waste Repository Project Office.

Commissioners were surprised at the high bids.

Two bids were turned in for the remodeling of the building that was formerly the sales office of Preferred Equities Corporation, Central Nevada Utilities and the Calvada library. The lowest bid was submitted by Edward Homes, at $2.5 million.

That was $700,000 more than the county budgeted, said County Manager Ron Williams.

The building would be expanded from 11,000 square feet to 18,000 square feet with an addition to the north. The courtyard would be filled in under the county's plans. The building would house a meeting room for county commission meetings and county administration offices.

Walls have already been knocked down inside the building.

It would have cost at least $955,000 to remodel the old apartment complex in the middle of the Calvada eye into offices for the repository project office. That low bid was also turned in by Edward Homes. Nye County had budgeted $250,000 for that project.

"We don't have the budget for the bids we received," Williams said.

Commissioner Gary Hollis, who spearheaded the renovation of the Calvada Eye building, made the motion to reject the bids and asked county staff to reassess the proposals.

When commissioners voted to seek bids, Commissioner Joni Eastley speculated the county could get a favorable bid from contractors who needed work in the slack economy.

Nye County commissioners previously approved up to $100,000 in architectural costs for GM Associates to design the Calvada Eye renovation.

Nye County officials paid $3 million for the 32-acre Calvada Eye property in 2004.

The rejection puts a halt to an aggressive county building program elsewhere around Pahrump.

County commissioners last week voted to spend $277,000 in court facility fees to build a second district courtroom and a second justice courtroom, along with submitting a $500,000 application for a Department of Agriculture grant to be repaid with future court facility fees.

They also approved using a previously budgeted $750,000 to build a new sheriff's evidence locker. That funding comes on top of $1 million already set aside to remodel the district attorney's offices, county clerk's offices and other improvements to the government complex at 1520 E. Basin Ave.

The new office space and courtrooms will be built where the county assessors, treasurer and recorder's offices were, before being relocated to a new modular building on Floyd Drive, right behind the courthouse, in mid-February.

The county spent an estimated $650,000 to purchase and renovate the two modular buildings for those new offices.