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Cost of jail being held to $6.85 million
ssioners on Thursday announced the planned Bourbon County Law Enforcement Center will be built for the amount promised -- even if it means eliminating some features.
The announcement came during a special public meeting following the weekly Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce coffee, which was held at the courthouse.
The purpose of the meeting was to address citizens' concerns that have arisen after Larry Goldberg, president of Goldberg Group Architects of St. Joseph, Mo., announced in December the project would most likely go over budget because of an increase in construction costs.
In December, Goldberg was accompanied by the financial advisor for the project, Greg Vahrenberg of Piper Jaffray of Leawood, who discussed financing options the county might use to fund additional costs.
During a January progress meeting, Kevin Rost, GGA associate senior project manager, said the county could use a .4 percent retail sales tax increase to pay for architect fees and land acquisition. The sales tax increase was approved by voters to repay bonds to fund the project, but is expected to generate revenue beyond those payments.
"I will speak for the commission, that our intent is for the jail to be completed at the amount we voted on," Commission Chair Barbara Albright said. "That's our intention, so we'll find out where we are on bids."
Later, she and First District Commission Lynne Oharah reaffirmed that statement.
"It's not going to be a million-dollar overrun," Oharah said. "It's going to be a $6.85 million project -- period. There's not going to be an overrun. There's no discussion on cost overruns."
"We're accountable to the voters," Albright said.
"I'm going to ask you, Mr. Goldberg, if this went over (budget), how much would that cost you personally? How much of your fees would be reduced?" Jim Adams said.
Goldberg said the plans would have to be redrawn to get down to the $6.85 million cost.
On April 7, voters approved a .4 percent sales tax increase to repay bonds to fund the jail at no more than $6.85 million.
"It was intended to be complete in every way," Goldberg said Thursday.
That price was based on a 20,000-square-foot jail GGA had designed. When completed two years ago, the cost for that jail was $4.865 million, Goldberg said.
"At the time we believed that would be enough to cover the total amount for your project," Goldberg said. "The good news is we're circling back to the amount, only we're doing it the hard way."
He said during the past year or year and a half, there is a construction labor shortage. He said his firm was unable to get bids on electrical work for a jail, which would have been all inclusive. He said in Miami County, where GGA also has designed a jail, there was only one bid for the electrical and it was too high. The electrical had to be divided into smaller packages, which attracted smaller electrical companies to the project.
As he did in December, Goldberg also talked about a project in Seward, Neb. For that project, the structural steel prices went from $2,100 a ton in place to $3,400 to $3,600 a ton in place. But by the time the project was bid, the cost had dropped.
"I have a duty to you all to tell you the bad news, to tell you the conservative price," Goldberg said.
Goldberg said he and the construction manager for the project, Universal Construction of Lenexa, have estimated there will be a $650,000 cost overrun for the project.
"When you start a project, you are always looking at the highest and most conservative cost," Goldberg said. "So we have looked at a budget of $7.5 million, which is where we are now, versus $6.5. What we had hoped would happen is, as our designs became increasingly detailed, engineers, estimators, construction coordinators led by Universal, would be taking a harder and harder look at things, the costs start coming down as more details are made available. This is how construction works."
Goldberg said the estimated cost for the building structure was $726,000 to $733,000. But as of Wednesday, the pre-bid estimate is $383,000, "reflecting for these guys a $400,000 to $450,000 savings," Goldberg said.
This is not an actual bid, Goldberg said.