COVINGTON — For the past decade, Fountain County Commissioners have been discussing building a new jail.
In an effort to move the $10 million project along, county officials conducted a joint meeting Monday with members of the Fountain County Council.
Although no one spoke out against building a new jail facility, two concerns did arise. The first concern was a request from council members for more financial information. The second concern arose between Commissioners Tim Shumaker and Don Hesler over which contractor should be hired to manage construction.
Shumaker preferes entering into contracts with Barnes and Thornburg for bond contracting; DLZ Inc. as architect; Umbaugh and Associates as financial advisor; and CCI Inc. as construction management.
Hesler wants to hire Kettelhut Contractors of Lafayette to oversee construction. The company is known for building large projects, but has limited experience in building jails. The company did recently construct the Tippecanoe County Jail addition.
Commissioners received proposals from both Kettelhut and CCI The estimate from CCI was approximately $78,000 less than the one from Kettelhut.
“I want Kettelhut as our construction manager because they are more local,” Hesler said. “They have a good relationship with local contractors and do a good job.”
Shumaker questioned Hesler’s choice by pointing out Kettelhut’s estimate was $78,000 more. He also claimed CCI is the number one jail construction company in Indiana. Shumaker listed many correctional facilities CCI has built compared Kettelhut.
“I think going with Kettelhut would be a mistake,” Shumaker said. “I know they are an excellent company for what they build. They just don’t have a lot of experience at building jails.”
Commissioners asked for input from council members.
Fountain County Council President Dudley Cruea said he was not comfortable with commissioners entering into contracts on Monday. He would like all council members to have an opportunity to see the financial numbers that only the commissioners had seen. He told commissioners he understood they had the right to enter into the jail construction contacts, but he hoped they would include council members before finalizing their decisions.
The question of whether or not a new jail is needed was not debated. The present facility only has room for 25 inmates. The county is currently spending more than $200,000 annually to house inmates in facilities outside of the county.
Commissioners agreed to provide the council with the financial reports and tabled the jail project.
Shumaker was disappointed that no decisions were made.
“We cannot keep putting this off like we have for the past 10 years,” Shumaker said. “The time is now and we need to get started on it.”