MERCER COUNTY Officials pleased with bid requests on plans for jail

Latest projections had estimated the cost of the facility at about $20 million.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County commissioners said they were relieved and extremely pleased with the results of bidding on a new county jail.
The apparent low base bids on the job totaled just under $17.5 million, about $1 million less than was earmarked for the 266-bed facility to be built on 31 acres off Pa. Route 258 in Findley Township, just south of the borough.
Officials had feared that bids might exceed the funds available to pay for it, as engineering and architectural costs had grown from an original estimate of $15 million several years ago. Latest estimates on the cost had been as high as $20 million.
Possible final cost
The final cost could still exceed the $17.5 million figure. There are a number of bid alternates regarding the type of masonry to be used in the construction that could easily raise the cost by $1 million, should the county decide to accept them.
"I think they're right on," Commissioner Gene Brenneman, president of the commissioner board, said of the bids opened Wednesday in the courthouse.
Brenneman said the bids will be reviewed by L. Robert Kimball Associates of Ebensburg, Pa., the project architect, and the county solicitor to make sure the apparent low bidders meet all bidding specifications.
Contracts could be awarded at the June 6 commissioners meeting and ground could be broken June 26, he said.
The contractors will have 555 days to complete the job.
Funding the project
The county will pay for the jail primarily with $34 million it borrowed through the sale of bonds in 2001. That loan has also gone for renovations of the courthouse and other county projects. The state also awarded the county a $435,650 grant for the jail project in March.
The debate over the need for a new jail has been a point of discussion for years. Mercer County's inmate population has long surpassed the capacity of its 114-bed jail on South Diamond Street across from the courthouse.
The county spent $1,254,000 last year to house prisoners in other county jails around the state and has been averaging a total monthly inmate population of about 180 for the past couple of years.