Feeling like a million bucks
LOREN BENOIT/Press John Bales with Sletten Construction finishes inspecting a new inmate dorm addition to the Kootenai County Jail on Thursday. The 30,000-square-foot jail expansion is set to be completed in late September with an increased capacity to 441 beds.
The Kootenai County Jail expansion consists of 20,000 square feet of finished detention space and 8,000 square feet of shelled space, seen here, for future expansion.(LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Shawn Riley, Kootenai County building and grounds director, gives a guided tour of a future detention shell space at the Kootenai County Jail on Thursday. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
The Kootenai County Jail expansion also includes 2,000 square feet of secured space for outdoor recreation. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
One of the dormitory style rooms in the 10-bed inmate worker dormitory wing expansion at the Kootenai County Jail. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
By BRIAN WALKER
Staff Writer
COEUR d'ALENE — Shawn Riley unlocked some good taxpayer news on Monday.
Kootenai County's building and grounds director told commissioners that the $12.5 million jail expansion project, which is slated to be completed as originally scheduled on Sept. 26, will come in nearly $1 million under budget.
"This is a great feeling of accomplishment," Riley told The Press during a tour of the 30,000-square-foot expansion Monday.
Riley said the cost was held in check because change orders during construction were kept at a minimum.
"Sometimes with a $12 million project you can have hundreds of thousands worth of change orders, and we just didn't have those," he said. "It came down to having a good architect and contractor. No shortcuts were taken."
Commissioner Chris Fillios said he was pleased to hear Riley's final update on the project.
"A lot of gratitude to (staff and those involved)," he said.
The project is being paid for with existing funds set aside for capital projects. It will not increase taxes.
LCA Architects of Boise, Longwell Trapp Architects of Hayden and Sletten Corrections were the architects and contractor, respectively, for the project on the northeast side of the site. Riley said the project provided work to a lot of local subcontractors.
Joe Donovan, Sletten's project manager, said snow last winter caused delays in the construction, but those were overcome this summer.
"That's typically not an environment we've been in," Donovan said. "Our superintendent, Todd Azinger, did an excellent job negotiating the hurdles that Mother Nature put in front of us. When the job thawed out and it was time to accelerate, we were fortunate enough to have another one of our superintendents, John Bales, come available to help us find the next gear we needed to hit in order to finish on time."
The project consists of 20,000 square feet of finished detention space, 2,000 square feet of secured outdoor recreation space and 8,000 square feet of shelled space for future expansion.
It includes 84 beds of two-tiered, close-custody housing, a 10-bed inmate worker dormitory, a 28-bed, two-tiered medical unit and clinic, and a replacement laundry area.
The additional beds will increase capacity to 441.
Sheriff Ben Wolfinger said he hoped that the shelled space would be built out to provide 98 more beds. However, Riley said that would have cost an additional $4.5 million.
Wolfinger said it's been a great project overall and he was impressed how Sletten held contractors accountable for their bids. A groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively being planned for Oct. 1.
"The first thing we'll do is stop using the booking area as holding cells for medical units," Wolfinger said.
Fifteen detention deputies and five control room operators will be needed to staff the jail expansion.
The county is spending $150,000 to $160,000 per month to house inmates out of the area due to jail overcrowding. That figure does not include transportation costs.
Officials estimate the cost of the additional staffing needed for the expansion compared to the cost the county is transporting and housing inmates out of the area will be about a wash to start out with, but should save taxpayers money in two years or so.