Jail site purchase still pending, survey, study reports due soon

Friday, February 26, 2016

Bourbon County officials will have a firmer notion on the status of the planned Bourbon County Law Enforcement Center within a couple of weeks.

During a meeting Thursday to discuss the project's progress, Kevin Rost, associate senior project manager with Goldberg Group Architects PC of St. Joseph, Mo., said reports from surveys and studies have not been completed yet.

The purchase of approximately six acres to build the jail is dependent on the results of those surveys and studies.

Rost said the final report on the Phase 2 Environmental Study is due today and he would pass that on to county officials after he receives it.

The final preliminary site survey has also been completed and Rost said he expected to have that report from Agricultural Engineering of Uniontown by the "end of the week."

Rost said Ag Engineering had mentioned new flood plain maps have been done by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Oharah said commissioners have already adopted those maps and the site is not in a floodplain.

Rost said the survey does not show any problems, but there are two abandoned city streets going through the property. Rost said the county would have to petition the city to have those streets officially abandoned. Rost said he has been told the streets haven't been "active" since the 1920s.

"It's just a formality. It's not any structural roads," Rost said. "I did ask when they are doing their survey work if they would stake the center line of those streets."

Oharah said the commissioners have already spoken to County Counselor Justin Meeks about starting the road closure procedure with the city.

Ag Engineering also will be taking core samples for the geotechnical report, which will help the architects determine what type of foundation to use on the building. Rost said if the samples weren't taken last week, they would be taken this week.

"It will be at least a couple of weeks at least before we see anything on the preliminary," Rost said.