Despite not getting a public statement of support from the county council, Fountain County Commissioners are moving forward to sign contracts for a construction management company and architectural services.
This action will start a construction process that is projected to cost $15 million and take three years.
On Monday evening, commissioners took contracts with Kettelhut Construction for construction management services and DLZ Engineering for architectural services under advisement. Officials want to give County Attorney Terry Martin time to review the documents. Commissioners have scheduled a special meeting with the county council at 8:30 a.m. Thursday to discuss the contracts with both vendors. They expect to sign the contracts at that time.
Earlier Monday, council members met and discussed several aspects of building the jail. The biggest point of contention was the selection of Kettelhut Construction as construction managers. The only time the company has had any jail construction experiences was 14 years ago when it built a large addition to the Tippecanoe County jail. The other company that submitted a bid to be the construction manager was C.C.I. It has provided similar services more than 40 times in the past three years in various parts of the Midwest.
Commissioner Don Hesler had asked for the county council’s vote of confidence, and that request was on the agenda. Hesler previously stated that if the council did not fully support funding the jail project, he would ask that the matter be dropped at this time.
On Monday, the council took no action on Hesler’s request for a vote of confidence.
After the council meeting, Hesler said he would still support approving the contracts at the commissioner’s meeting Monday evening. He admitted he was unclear about how the council was leaning toward funding the jail.
“I really am not sure if we got the council’s support,” Hesler said. “I believe we will move forward with what we got.”
During the council meeting, Commissioner Tim Shumaker spoke against signing a contract with Kettelhut. The former director of West Central Regional Community Corrections in Veedersburg said he had talked with more than 100 people and companies across the state and found C.C.I. to have a great reputation for building correctional facilities. He believes Kettelhut should not get the contract because it has little experience building jails and the company’s bid was approximately $78,000 more than the C.C.I.
“Over one year ago I volunteered to contact all the people I know from running community corrections and talking to other commissioners, jail vendors and individuals,” Shumaker said. “Our responsibility is to select the best and most responsible companies. This is $15 million. This is huge to the taxpayers of Fountain County.”
At the council meeting, two citizens, Paul Bowman and Ken Smith, all questioned the decision to hire a construction management company with less experience for more money. They both asked the council to deny funding to Kettelhut Construction and hire C.C.I.
Shumaker said all three commissioners previously had met with Kettelhut and C.C.I. to discuss the submitted bids. Shumaker then said that commissioners Hesler and Craig Stalter along with council members Jim Hershberger, Dudley Cruea and Jim McKee traveled to Lafayette for additional discussions with Kettelhut’s management. Shumaker was not invited to attend that meeting.
Councilman Tom Booe said he did not have enough information to vote on the matter and asked for more joint meetings between commissioners and the council to further discuss all the issues surrounding the jail.
Todd Samuelson, executive partner with Umbaugh, spoke at the meeting about the process to obtain financing. The first step was completed at the meeting when the council voted 6-0 for a new local income special tax. Samuelson said his company predicted the $.55 raise of taxes on adjusted gross income will generate $1.7 million of new taxes per year to pay for a new jail. The new tax rate will begin Jan. 1, 2018.
There still is not decision made on where the jail will be built or how big in terms of inmate population.