Commissioners want to stick to budget on proposed jail project

McLeod County commissioners want to hold firm to its original $7.4 million budget for a proposed jail expansion project.
At least, that was the message from commissioners Sheldon Nies and Ron Shimanski at a Sept. 29 workshop with representatives from Wold Architecture and Contegrity Group, which are the architectural and construction management consultants for the proposal.
Those representatives said they reviewed the original proposal, for which bids came in nearly $2 million more than the anticipated cost. They said they could shave about $780,000 off those bids, but the cost would still be considerably more than the original estimate, with a total cost of about $9 million.
John McNamara of Wold said the county did the right thing when it rejected those bids and decided to revisit the project.
McNamara said when the original plan was being drafted, construction pricing was rebounding from the recession. In addition, the county called for bids at the same time as many school districts were seeking bids on new schools or building additions.
Tim Langenfeld, chief deputy of the sheriff’s department, noted that the new $9 million estimate is based on the original project. Langenfeld said that an alternate plan, which would reduce some square footage and reconfigure the garage sallyport, has also been considered.
The bottom line, the consultants said, is that they need a figure to work with.
Shimanski said the county sold the project to its constituents based on the $7.4 million figure, which would allow the county to finance the project without bonding.
“If we miss that target, we’ll have to re-sell this to our constituents,” Shimanski said.
Nies agreed.
“We’re not bonding, so there is no more money available,” Nies said.

For more, see the Oct. 7 print edition of The Chronicle.