County hires jail contractors to oversee construction
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Santa Rosa County Jail will soon be under construction with an addition to provide 128 more beds. County commissioners approved an architectural firm to begin work on a plan, and a construction management company that will hire contractors and oversee the work.

Last week commissioners signed a contract with Clemons, Rutherford & Associates, Inc. of Tallahassee to begin an architectural planning for the 16,500 square foot addition to the jail. The construction management team the commissioners has chosen after hearing presentations from several firms is Peter R.Brown Construction.

Both firms have agreed to a six percent fee of whatever final construction costs are. The construction costs are to be presented to commissioners for approval within the next few weeks by the construction manager, according to county administrator Hunter Walker.

"Of course, all plans will be presented to you commissioners before anything is approved to move forward," Walker said.

County chair John Broxson of Gulf Breeze said, "The great thing about working with a construction manager is that they hire all contractors locally and use local resources. We are glad Peter Brown has agreed to do that. We stressed that we want local people and local resources used as much as possible."