A Jim Thorpe company has won the job of removing asbestos tile from a former beauty school destined to become Schuylkill County offices.

Sargent Enterprises offered to do the job for the least amount of money, $43,626.Seven companies bid on the work, removing tiles, including some containing asbestos, from the former Empire Beauty School building at 324 N. Centre St. in Pottsville.Commissioners hired Sargent at a public meeting Wednesday.The 17,748-square-foot former beauty school, built in 1967, is catty-corner from the county courthouse and will house county and other offices.The other bidders were Power Component Systems, Harrisburg, $47,600; Plymouth Environmental, Norristown, $120,800; First Capital Insulation, York, $55,000; Forrester Environmental, Bloomsburg, $51,100; Shade Environmental, Maple Shade, New Jersey, $148,000; and Prism Response, Drums, $49,921.The county acquired the building and two nearby parking lots from brothers Dale and Franklin Schoeneman for $740,000 in May 2013. The county received government grant money to help offset the cost.The building has been stripped, except for the floor tile. The next step is to seek bids to install electrical, mechanical, plumbing and other necessities.The county hopes to have the building refurbished and occupied sometime next year.In other real estate matters, commissioners signed a lease with the J.C. Morris Company for a 15,000-square-foot building at 224 Bulls Head Road, Pottsville, for $2,500 a month for two years.The contract runs from Nov. 1 through Oct. 31, 2016. The county will use the building to store its increasing amount of documents.