The Ada County Board of Commissioners is considering a $13.3 million project to begin upgrades on the aging Ada County Jail – including a replacement of the kitchen and laying the groundwork for future expansion.
The Board met with Sheriff Matt Clifford and members of Ada County’s Operations Department Wednesday afternoon to discuss the plan, which is being considered in lieu of November’s unsuccessful $49 million jail bond vote.
The jail bond project would have paid for infrastructure upgrades in the entire facility, including the kitchen replacement, a new road and secure entrance connecting the jail campus to Allumbaugh Street, and the addition of new dorm building with 294 beds.
Since that isn’t happening – but the need to deal with our aging jail facility remains urgent – the BOCC has been considering next moves, including the replacement of the kitchen, which is our most immediate need.
Our inmate-staffed kitchen, which has to produce about 4,000 meals a day, is operating with mid 1990s equipment designed to accommodate about half that.
The new plan includes installing temporary kitchen buildings (similar to trailers) next to the jail and then gutting the old kitchen — replacing the ovens, refrigerators/freezers, dishwasher, and all the other scullery equipment with state-of-the-art stuff.
Before that can happen, construction crews must build a secure corridor from the existing jail to where the temporary kitchen pods will be.
The other – and most major part of the $13 million project — is for crews to lay the infrastructure (including electrical and plumbing) to the east of the jail to get that land ready for the possible expansion of the dorms and a new warehouse in the future.
That plan includes a new road between Allumbaugh Street and the jail, on property Ada County purchased last year. That would allow for construction crews and delivery trucks to access the facility during construction.
The $13.3 million project is broken down into three phases:
$7.5 million for the “civil infrastructure” project on the east side of the jail; $1.3 million to create the secure corridor connecting the jail to the temporary kitchen and construction site; and $2.4 million for the new equipment and remodel of the current kitchen and the cost of the temporary kitchen.
Add in about $2 million for the creation of a construction staging area and to cover insurance, permits, and special testing, and you get to $13.3 million.
The BOCC have been saving money for jail construction. During the bond election, the board committed to contributing about $20 million from county funds to the project, to take the burden off the taxpayer. (The actual price tag for the expansion project was $69 million, but the bond was for $49 million). That funding would be used for this project.
The project would take care of the Jail’s most immediate need – the kitchen – and get started on the infrastructure needed for expansion, giving the county time to figure out how to pay for future projects.