Commissioners discuss jail repairs during work session

The Marshall County Commissioners conducted a “work session” at 11 a.m. Monday in their meeting room to discuss the jail repairs.  The meeting was streamed live and is available on the county’s You Tube site. 

Earlier this year, John Greer, Maintenace Director for the Marshall County Jail told the commissioners he was seeing maintenance issues that needed to be addressed, although he wasn’t well enough versed in the issues to make any determinations. 

Jamie Giguere, the project manager from Midwest Maintenance from Piqua, Ohio looked at the issues and gave some recommendations. This inspection was at no cost to the county or jail because Midwest Maintenance did the restoration work on the courthouse. 

The commissioners then asked the County Attorney to write a Request for Proposals seeking a company to inspect the issues at the jail and create a scope of work, review the proposals, prepare the project for the bidding process and then oversee the improvements. 

During the April 12th meeting, the commissioners opened Requests for Proposals from two firms, DLZ and JRP. The proposals presented were not easy to compare because Jones Petree Rafinski provides a fee of $69,525 for their consulting services on the proposed work while DLZ only provided a fee of $14,522.50 for the assessment of repairs for the restoration process.  They provided base fees for other work that might be necessary but said until the assessment is complete, they couldn’t give a more accurate cost.

On Monday the County Commissioners discussed the proposals with Greer.  He said both companies came to the jail and toured the facility but didn’t give much information on what they thought the county should do. 

The main concerns of the commissioners are the cracks in the exterior walls.  Greer said the cracks are only in the exterior walls and haven’t penetrated the two inner walls. 

The second concern is the windows above the dispatch center that weren’t installed correctly and have caused issues. The commissioners eventually had to put in a drop ceiling to keep the warm air down for the employees.

The commissioners decided the best thing to do would be to conduct interviews with both engineering firms so they can ask questions about the scope of work and get a better idea of costs. 

Giguere had roughly estimated $500,000 to $750,000 for the work he felt needed to happen.

The commissioners hope to meet with representatives from DLZ and JPR following their next meeting on Monday, May 20th.