COLUMBIANA CO. CiviGenics submits sole bid to run jail

Bids were opened for a waterline installation project.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners won't find it hard to pick which private company is going to run the county jail.
Only one company -- the one now overseeing the lockup -- submitted a proposal to get the contract.
CiviGenics Inc. of Milford, Mass., has been running the jail for about six years and wants to continue doing so after its current contract expires at the end of the year.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel said Wednesday that three other companies expressed an interest in the job, but only CiviGenics met Wednesday's deadline to submit a proposal.
Hoppel said he's uncertain why.
It costs the county about $2 million annually to house prisoners at its lockup.
CiviGenics' new jail operations offer proposes to charge the county 3 cents less than the current per inmate, per day rate of $48.26.
Also included in the proposal is a $30 per inmate charge for those individuals held less than 12 hours, as is sometimes the case when someone is arrested and booked at the jail but quickly posts bond.
County response
Hoppel said the county already pays a similar charge. He couldn't immediately recall how much it is.
CiviGenics is proposing a slight increase in how much it pays the county for each out-of-county prisoner it houses at the lockup. That charge is now between $5 and about $6 a day. It would go to $6 daily under the new agreement.
Hoppel said commissioners will review CiviGenics' proposal and will try to negotiate better terms for the county.
Commissioners are hopeful a new contract can be signed by Dec.1.
In other matters, commissioners accepted bids for an estimated $550,000 project to extend a waterline.
The Buckeye Water District, a governmental entity that provides water to much of the southern part of the county, plans to lay about 1.5 miles of waterline along state Route 45 in Madison Township from Township Line Road, north to Osbourne Road.
The line will serve a new water treatment plant and water storage tank the district plans to construct.
A nearly $480,000 federal grant has been landed to help pay for the project, said Al DeAngelis, district manager.
The remainder will be paid for with a state loan that will be repaid with user fees.
Plans call for installing the line as soon as possible and finishing the job in about four months.
leigh@vindy.com