Marshall County’s proposed jail expansion took another step forward Tuesday. The county commissioners approved a contract with architecture firm RQAW. RQAW President and CEO Troy Woodruff said the design will depend on input from local stakeholders.
“We will determine what does that pod need to look like, how many cells do you want to add to that pod, how many dormitory-style beds do you want to add to that pod,” he explained. “And do you want to white-box any of it for future growth or do you want to go ahead and built it all out today? So all those decisions would come in that schematic design phase.” That first phase would take an estimated five to six weeks, with the overall goal of having bid documents ready around the end of the year.
County Attorney Jim Clevenger said the contract calls for a minimum fee of $75,000. He’s not sure if a feasibility study would be required for an expansion, but one is included in the contract, just in case.
It was pointed out that RQAW also worked on the existing building, which should speed up the process. Woodruff noted that the jail was designed to accommodate another pod. “The jail that you built back in 2005 has pretty much reached its capacity,” he said, “and now you’re dipping into those record numbers almost every weekend, in terms of number of inmates in your jail.”
He also said that while Indiana doesn’t allow a project’s architect to also serve as its construction manager, RQAW can serve as an owner’s rep. “So with an owner’s rep, it serves a lot of the same functions, almost all of the same functions,” Woodruff explained. “The biggest difference for you guys is you would hold the contracts instead of your construction manager. So that way, we will have people out on-site, inspecting the work, all those things that you could expect, a little bit cheaper because, obviously, we’re not holding those contracts. But we will guide you through that bid process, all those things.”
Exactly how the county would finance a jail expansion still remains to be determined. Clevenger said the hope is that the county could extend the local income tax that’s already in place to pay for the existing jail. The commissioners also agreed to hire law firm Barnes & Thornburg as bond counsel. Their estimated fee is $50,000, but Clevenger cautioned that amount could change.
They also plan to hire Todd Samuelson with accounting firm Baker Tilly as the project’s financial advisor. Clevenger said he didn’t have the paperwork ready for the board’s approval Tuesday, but Samuelson has already been doing some preliminary work.
