Law Enforcement Center Moves Closer To Reality

Feb 17, 2006 | Headline News

If all goes well, a new city-county law enforcement center will be open for business on July 1, 2007.

Members of the Grundy County Law Enforcement Committee met Thursday evening to approve final plans for a 28-bed facility. The estimated $3.2 million project will go out for bid on Monday, with bids to be opened and read publicly on Wednesday, March 22. If the bids look good, architect Ken West of ArchitectsWest will take about two weeks to check references and be sure all insurance and bonding is in place before the bid will be officially awarded by the Grundy County Commission. Construction would then start as soon as possible with a July 1, 2007 completion date included in the contract. If the work is not done within that time frame, the general contractor would be required to pay $500 per day.

While the original plan had called for a 2o-bed facility, Grundy County Sheriff Rodney Herring said that when earlier plans were examined, it was discovered that there was not enough room for all prisoners to eat based on standards required for correctional facilities. It was decided to draw out the corners of the building, enlarging it slightly, which allowed for two more two-person cells on each level of the building. Herring said that while this change will add a little cost to the facility, it would have just been empty space had the cells not been located in that area.

West said that the county will probably fill the extra beds with its own prisoners (there are currently 18 in custody) but even if that doesn’t always happen, the beds can be used to house prisoners from other counties, bringing in some revenue.

West also said the building, which was designed with the assistance of a consulting engineer, will meet all codes. He described it as “state-of-the-art” and said the front of the building, which will face Main Street, will be set back 20 feet from the street and appear to be one-story, while the back will look like it has a walk-out basement. He noted that engineers say a building is “pretty” when it “works” and is functional. He commented that in that sense, this plan is “pretty”. He also noted that the facility includes an outdoor exercise area that will have a 10-foot high block wall with razor wire at the top.

West discussed logistics as far as driveways and entrances go and said there should be 45 parking spaces around the building. Presiding Commissioner Kenny Roberts noted that the building “is designed to fit the slope of the lot very well”.

The group discussed the work that has been done by the city of Trenton to water and sewer lines in the area, as well as how well the recent demolition went.

The estimated cost includes building construction and site development (grading, parking, etc.) and West said he expects to have eight to 10 general contractors bid on the project. He said that its size, the time of year and the fact that it is new construction, not an expansion of an existing facility, will draw bidders.

In a related issue, the group discussed the need to upgrade the 911 system, which was described as “antiquated”. Roberts said it is possible to use funds from the law enforcement sales tax to fund the new equipment needed to modernize the system, which will be relocated from the City Public Safety Complex to the new facility. As was discussed when the county passed the 2006 budget, the fact that traditional land phone lines, on which the 911 tax is based, are being replaced by cell phones and wireless communications devices has resulted in less money to operate the system and a shortage of funds to upgrade it as needed. A tax on cell phones would help alleviate the problem, as would a sales tax for that purpose. No action was taken, but more discussion on the subject is expected in the coming months.