Efforts to add a 100-bed addition to the Henderson County Detention Center are gaining momentum.
At a Sept. 4 special-called meeting of the Henderson County Fiscal Court, Jailer Bruce Todd said the 8,000-square-foot wing would house about 100 federal and state inmates and generate an annual revenue of approximately $2 million.
The meeting was a session to receive and discuss information about the proposed expansion. No votes were taken.
Todd told magistrates that the detention center receives a daily stipend for housing federal and state inmates. The current rate is $68 a day per federal inmate, and $35 a day per state inmate. County inmates do not generate a profit for the jail.
This revenue stream, he said, could be in jeopardy if overcrowding starts deterring federal and state authorities from sending their inmates to Henderson County.
Todd said as of Sept. 4 about 500 inmates—200 of which are federal—were being housed at the jail. The detention center has roughly 464 beds. The state considers this an overcrowding issue, he said.
“The expansion would help with this problem,” said Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider.
The judge then added that profits earned from housing federal and state inmates give the Henderson County Detention Center the distinction of being one of three jails in the commonwealth which is self-sustaining.
“We have one of the few detention centers in the entire state which actually pays for itself,” Schneider said. “One of the ways we accomplish that is by housing federal prisoners. The expansion would assure (federal and state authorities) that we can continue to do this.
“On the flip side, there are so many counties who’ve had budgets decimated by their jails to the point that they’ve closed them. They send their inmates to neighboring counties to be housed … it’s a blessing to the taxpayers of Henderson County that we have a jail that actually pays for itself.”
Magistrate Butch Puttman pointed out that a jail expansion feasibility study conducted for this project, “noted that if our jail doesn’t expand, it will be in trouble (financially.)”
Todd told magistrates that the new wing will cost around $7.5 million.
The breakdown of that includes construction costs of $6.6 million; architect and engineering fees of $460,000; and construction manager fee of $525,000.
The annual revenue for adding 80 beds for federal inmates is projected at $2 million with the annual income from adding 20 beds for state inmates at $260,000.
The additional expenses incurred by the jail expansion includes salaries and benefits for two additional employees, which is $88,000 annually; building and supplies for $58,000; food and medical services for $408,000; and operating expenditures of $194,000. The total annual cost of the added expenses is $748,000.
“We will incorporate that into the jail’s budget,” Todd said.
The magistrates in attendance (Bill “Stephens” Starks was absent) agreed the detention center needs to be expanded. There was a great deal of pushback, however, about the construction manager fee.
“The fee for a construction manager is $525,000. Is that going to one person? A single person? Or is that a team?” Schneider said.
Tim Skinner, a local architect whose firm worked with the jail on the expansion drawings, said, “The construction manager takes the place of the general contractor. The CM isn’t just one person. It’s the company behind the project.
“Basically, when you hire a construction manager, they come in during the design process. The value of having the CM is they get prices et cetera … They’ll adjust things as you go so the price stays in-line with the budget. It helps value-engineer the project while you’re designing it; instead of designing the building, estimating what you think it’s going to cost, putting that bid out there, and suddenly the project is $1 million more than thought.”
Magistrate Tim Southard asked Skinner about project accountability.
“With a general contractor, I hire him because at that point I have a set, ‘This is what it’s going to cost me’ and he/she is held accountable for the way everything is specified. Who is held accountable here?”
“The construction manager,” Skinner said. “You will have a set number before you start awarding the contracts … you will know the scope of the project with set bids. The CM takes the role of the general contractor and keeps everything coordinated. So, it’s basically what you have with a general contractor.”
“Most jail projects, most school projects are being constructed this way,” Skinner said.
“That doesn’t inspire confidence,” said Magistrate Taylor Tompkins. “I’ve been tight with two big projects going on at Henderson County High School, and I haven’t seen a significant advantage (of having a construction manager). They’ve been over budget and over time. Not to be argumentative, so if we do this, we need to go out for bids for a CM.”
Southard concurred. “I agree. That’s a lot of money.”
Todd assured them that the CM would be put out for bid.
“We never said we weren’t going to bid it out,” he said. “We’re just saying that this is the cost.”
The next point of discussion was how to pay for the $7.5 million project.
“There are two options—we bond it or pay cash for it,” Schneider said. “Over a 20-year bond which is the length of the bond, the interest is quite expensive.
“On the other hand, we have the means to pay for it ourselves. We’ve been talking to (Jailer Todd) about sharing the cost between the jail fund and the general fund.”
“I think saving ourselves the $500,000 in interest payments would be my preference,” Schneider said.
Initially, Tompkins and Southard seemed in favor of taking out a bond to pay for the project until they learned that there isn’t an early pay-off clause.
“With a bond, you lock in the interest rate,” Schneider said. “We don’t save interest by paying it off early. You pay the same interest rate you would have.”
“That changes the game,” Southard said.
“It’s not worth it,” Tompkins said.
“I like paying cash and not having any debt,” said Magistrate Keith Berry.
The meeting ended with Schneider telling Todd that the panel would need a final cost before it would formalize its decision.
In a separate interview with the Hendersonian, Todd said there are still several hoops to jump through before construction will actually begin. One of which is putting together a packet for the Department of Corrections to get its stamp of approval.
“They want to know if we have the backing of the fiscal court; our last two or three years of jail audits; the jail’s current population; our financial situation, which is good, we are still in the black; and they want to know our feasibility study which entailed whether or not we should build,” he said. “The study said that we should.”
Todd said he hopes to have the approval of the DOC and the formal approval of the fiscal court by the end of the year.
“We will then put the project out for construction bids,” he said.
While in the past, inmate labor was used to construct outside buildings, specific crews are required to build expansions to the jail itself.
“They have to know jail standards,” he said.
Bids will be advertised regionally.
Todd said he’d like to have all construction bids back by February.
Once the construction company is hired, the jailer said, the expansion will begin as the company can fit it into its project schedule.
Weather permitting, he said, the job could take at least 12 months.
