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 from what was
first conceived well over a decade ago, when county lawmakers started
seriously looking at a new jail.
Kukuvka, left, and Perello
Mark Kukuvka, of LaBella Associates, said they 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 during Thursday’s committee meetings.
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. The design includes the ability to add cells in the future.
Not included in the basic bid specs is a facility for the sheriff’s office and road patrol. Kukuvka said if done as a biddable add-on, the added cost would be around $8 million. A freestanding structure would cost much more.
Rajsz: “… as easy a burden on them
as possible …”
New legislator, Nadia Rajsz isn’t questioning the need for a jail, but said a top concern will remain the burden on the taxpayers.
“I just want to make this as easy a burden on them as possible while having that jail, which we needed,” Rajsz said.
Public Works Committee Chairman Joseph Perrello, also a new legislator,
said “this was dropped in our lap” and they need to move with
it.
Kukuvka said now is the time to put the package together.
“Final quality control review that we’ll do with the county. Make sure that we’re all on the same page with the type of mechanical equipment, plumbing, furniture, fixtures, whatever. Drawing gets buttoned up, then put it out to bid.”
Kukuvka outlined a timeline that calls for going to bid in May.
