Kukuvka, left, and Perello
MONTICELLO – The target for going to bid on a new Sullivan County jail remains late spring. The estimated price tag also hasn’t changed, at least from November.
Consultants told the Sullivan County Legislature, which has six new members following the November election that their best estimate on what the jail will cost is just over $80 million.
For that, the county gets a jail significantly downsized form what was first conceived well over a decade ago, when county lawmakers started seriously looking at a new jail.
Mark Kukuvka, of LaBella Associates, said they have looked for every conceivable way to streamline the design while still giving the county a jail that will meet its needs for the next several decades.
“We spent three months doing it with the Sheriff’s Office, of strategically saying ‘what can we live without, what still maintains the core and what can we do here’,” Kukuvka said.
The jail would have 256 cells, based on an assessment, reached with the state Commission on Corrections, of what specifically is required in Sullivan County. With 25 percent double-bunking, the jail population could go to over 300.
Not included in the basic bid specs is a facility for the Sheriff Office and Road Patrol. Kukuvka said if done as a biddable add-on, not a freestanding structure, the added cost would be around $8 million.
Public Safety Committee Chairman Joseph Perrello, one of the new legislators, said “this was dropped in our lap” and they need to move with it.
Another new legislator, Nadia Rajsz, didn’t dispute that, but said a top concern will remain the burden on the taxpayers.
