A request for a change in costs to the Fayette County Adult Detention Facility construction project was recently received and approved by the Fayette County Commissioners.
The request came from Granger Construction Company which is the contractor for the project. The change is a $6,350 decrease in the total cost bringing it to $21,002,594.
The initial loan for the new jail was approved by the voters in Fayette County after the levy passed during the special election in May. Construction of the new facility began in June off Robinson Road. This came after several discussions pertaining to the poor conditions and legal violations of the current jail.
As previously reported, the new jail is planned to be a law enforcement complex which includes administrative offices and a 911 call center. It is planned to have proper space to separate inmates in consideration of gender and severity of crimes, to provide adequate medical and rehabilitative needs, as well as to provide programs for inmates to learn life skills that can help them to positively integrate into society, according to officials.
This isn’t the first request that has been received or approved for a change in the cost.
“We had cameras that were in the annex and partially in the administrative part of the jail that the sheriff’s office said they want to use for the administrative side of the jail,” said commissioner Tony Anderson.
“So, we have less expenses for that, but they added more ports for the cameras so we have expenses for the extra wiring,” explained commissioner Dan Dean.
The commissioners explained that it can be complicated to show what is being saved and what is costing more in relation to the original cost due to how things balance out, but a report has been requested to show the alterations in a manner that is more understandable.
“We’ve asked them to be very straightforward and give us a list of what’s been added and what’s been taken away,” said Dean. “Some of them were oversights, some of them are requested changes by the sheriff’s office.”
One of the alterations includes a parking lot.
“Behind the old firehouse building, there was a parking lot the contractor built up to park their stuff on and store supplies which, at the end, they’re supposed to remove,” explained Dean. “Well, the sheriff thought that would be a great place to impound vehicles so we’re going to leave the parking lot there—they won’t have to pay to remove it, but we want to build a fence around it. So there will be a trade-off in there.”
“We would have had to build it later,” said commissioner Jim Garland. “They already have the gravel down. They did an excellent job.”
Stay with the Record-Herald weekly for more updates from the Fayette County Commissioners. The Fayette County Commissioners’ Office is located at 133 S. Main St., suite 401 in Washington Court House and their office hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They can be reached at 740-335-0720.
Reach Jennifer Woods at 740-313-0355 or on Twitter @JennMWoods.
