Published: February 08, 2006 03:31 pm      

BOC renegotiating jail contract

Firm hired to design larger facility here

With the heft of the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) lined up to fund the construction of a new jail, members of the Butts County Board of Commissioners and the County Administrator Dr. Van Whaler have negotiated – and now renegotiated – the architectural fee with the PRAD Group, an Atlanta-based architecture firm. At the monthly meeting of the Board of Commissioners, held this past Monday evening, Whaler and the commissioners discussed the progress of the renegotiations.

“We’ve been knocking heads with these people for two months,” said Commissioner Gerald Kersey. “And you can bet your sweet bippy that this ain’t the contract we saw initially.”

“I think we’ve got to get this moving along before we find ourselves in a situation,” said Board Chairman Eddie Travis. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t even build a jail. We would put money in hospitals, schools and the library.”

“Chatham County realized that they can sue the Department of Corrections,” said Kersey. “It doesn’t take you long to run in a hole, and we’ve housed out as many as 51.”

“This is all hindsight,” said Travis. “We should have known from the beginning not to use [the PRAD group].”

“I’ll tell you what: I’ve sat in on those meetings, and they are long. I don’t know how they put up with us,” laughed Kersey.

“I don’t either,” said Whaler.

“We’ve got the money for this jail, but it’s going to take them $498,000 to tell us how much it’s going to cost,” said Kersey.

“That’s half a million dollars,” said Travis.

Whaler explained to the Board that he and Kersey had met with the jail project architect and renegotiated the fee and contract into two phases. The fee for Phase I will be approximately $498,840. Phase I would result in the determination of the final cost for the jail addition and renovation no later that May 1.

He recommended to the Board to authorize the Chairman to execute the Phase I contract with the PRAD Group to not exceed $498,840 for the jail expansion project, as well as establishing the county SPLOST referendum for July 18, 2006.

Commissioner Kersey made a motion to authorize Chairman Travis to execute the Phase I contract. Commissioner Grover McIntyre seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.