Commissioners to hear jail proposals
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Hall

Eleven architectural firms think they could provide the solution to Santa Rosa County Jail's overcrowding problems. But of the 11 responding to the request for bids from the county to build a dorm addition, only six will be allowed to present their ideas and cost proposals to the commissioners at a special meeting Monday, Jan. 28 at 9 a.m.

Then, immediately following those presentations, the commissioners will interview three of those companies on the same day at 11 a.m. to see who should get the job of building a permanent jail addition.

Santa Rosa County Sheriff Wendell Hall told commissioners at last week's county meeting that the addition will be a 128-bed open dorm. County Commission Chairman John Broxson asked for some reassurances from the sheriff that the idea of using federal inmates to pay for the cost of the addition is still a viable solution. "We do not know what Jan. 29 will bring to us," Broxson said. "We probably would not have money to build this expansion if it was not being paid for by the federal inmate program."

Hall said that it is still the way he sees the jail expansion can be paid for. "We get $49.50 a day for any federal inmates we house at the jail," Hall said Right now we have 50, and with this expansion we can take 100. That will pay for the expansion. We are always being asked if we can take more federal inmates, and we have a good relationship with the federal marshal. There is no reason to believe that program would not continue."

Hall said these architectural companies being interviewed will present their cost proposals at the next stage. their cost proposals at the next stage. "But the past figures I was given for such an expansion were in the neighborhood of $3 million to $3.5 million, so we are probably looking in that neighborhood," Hall added.

Hall said the problems of overcrowding at the jail are only getting worse with the growth in the county. "Unfortunately, no matter what Jan. 29 brings financially, the problems of overcrowding at the jail won't go away," Hall said. "And it is mandated by the state that we have the jail. Of the $30 million you give me to use to run my department, about $11 million of that goes right into the jail. And sometimes last year we were as many as 100 inmates over capacity."

Santa Rosa County Administrator Hunter Walker asked commissioners for the permission to have his staff choose the 'top' five or six proposals to bring before the commission, and then have the commissioners decide which three they would like to interview. Commissioners agreed.

The six to present their proposals on Jan. 28 will be: Hatch Mott McDonald, STOA Architects, Clemens, Rutherford & Associates, Strollo Architects, Hernandez Calhoun Design International, and Kendrick David Dowling Architects. The proposals will be given during a public meeting at the commission chambers.