BELTON — In an effort to save money, Bell County locked in prices to construct a section of its new minimum security jail facility.
A proposed budget for two pre-engineered metal buildings was approved in a 4-0 decision Monday by the Bell County Commissioners Court, with Judge David Blackburn absent. The buildings will serve as a minimum security section of the county jail to hold its growing inmate population.
The county is also issuing citations for some misdemeanor cases to keep the jail population low as coronavirus cases surge regionally.
While the county is not required to pay anything for the structures currently, the county will pay $959,215 once the buildings are installed.
Commissioner Russell Schneider said the county wanted to lock in the project’s cost early with SEDALCO Construction Services — the firm hired by the county to manage the project — due to rising metal prices.
“Basically, what we are doing with this is buying our place in line to start the fabrication of the metal building,” Schneider said. “It is a long lead out. SEDALCO (is) entering in a contract with the metal building (manufacturer) and we are in a contract with SEDALCO.”
County officials said that the contract does give them the opportunity to terminate the project before designs are completed, though a fee of $57,650 would be due to SEDALCO.
Designs of the structures are estimated to be completed by Oct. 2, with fabrication and installation of the structure sometime in December. Schneider said the foundation is expected to be done by the time the metal structure is ready, with the structure going up as pieces arrive in the county.
Commissioners said this part of the project only includes funds for the building itself, with fixtures inside the facility needing to be purchased later.
Officials said rising metal prices — of about 7 percent each month — would increase the cost of the building during in the coming months.
“Due to the dynamics of the marketplace and what is going on, we are in a rush to secure this material as soon as possible and save us a little bit of money in doing this,” Phil Goodwill, Bell County project director, said.
The construction of the new minimum security section of the jail comes as the county is currently working on a $129 million expansion of the facility.
County officials hope that the new minimum security facility will help house more of the jail’s growing population while it waits for the main expansion to be completed. Over the past year, the jail has needed to send more inmates to facilities in other counties due to a lack of capacity locally.
The county — which has contracts with seven other counties for jail services — recently approved another $3.5 million for the coming 2022 fiscal year to house inmates outside of the county.
Citations issued for misdemeanors
Jail administrator Shane Sowell said the jail has also started to try and limit new inmates by only issuing citations for minor crimes mainly due to the current population and the return of COVID-19.
Sowell said all local law enforcement officials are working with the jail to keep the population lower, while still arresting those with assault and alcohol-related charges.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate them working with us on that stuff, and it has really helped our numbers,” Sowell said. “Now, total population wise, we are at 1,190 inmates. And if they hadn’t worked with us on this, it would have been considerably higher.”
