Lincoln County Commissioners have taken action aimed at building a new county jail rather than renovating the current one.
Following discussion during their meeting last week, they agreed and voted unanimously to amend contracts with Spirit Architecture Group and Smith-Doyle Contractors by changing “Renovations to Lincoln County, OK Jail” to “New Lincoln County, OK Jail.”
Commission Chairman Lee Doolen, after the meeting, explained, “The original contract was to renovate the existing jail for around $1.2 million. If we renovate the current jail, we would lose our grandfather status due to that jail being so old and we would still lose beds and be overcrowded.”
Doolen continued, “We couldn’t spend that much money and not fix the current jail. We changed the contract from renovating the current jail to looking at building a new facility.”
He said in February the architecture group and contractor will have a work group spend an entire week that will be open to the public so they can see the process.
At the end of that week, Doolen said it should be determined “how much money will be needed and how we pay for it. It will be a vote of the people, the election would probably be in May of 2021,” he anticipates.
He indicated possible cost could be up to $15 million.
In other action, the commissioners adopted a resolution authorizing expenses for the EW 740 Road project in District 1 to be paid out of CBRI funds.
The Iowa Tribe has approved spending $2,747,400 on the project and anything over that the county would pay out of its CBRI funds account. Doolen said, “We will pay $190,000 on a nearly $3 million project.”
He further commented, “That CBRI funds are appropriated by the state to the county each month.”
In relation to that project, commissioners voted to award a contract to TJ Campbell, for $2,652,643.25. The company submitted the lowest of three bids.
The other two were Haskell Lemon, $2,857, 226; H&G Paving Contractors, $2,960,851.27.
“Our engineer tabulated the bids and advised TJ Campbell’s met all specifications,” Doolen noted.
The bids were opened during a special meeting on Nov. 9. The project calls for extending EW 740 Road 2.3 miles east from U.S. 177 in Lincoln County.
County Clerk Alicia Wagnon explained following the special meeting two weeks ago the project is for grading, draining and surfacing the roadway.
She reported the Engineer’s estimate on the project was $2,709,363.
The commissioners approved a Fiscal Year 2021 COVID-19 Safety Protocol Modification of the Regional Secure Detention Contract with OK Office of Juvenile Affairs.
They adopted a resolution to reimburse accounts with CARES Act funding.
In other business commissioners:
Took no action to set up a county website hosted by KellPro. Wagnon explained the setup cost is $2,000 and the annual maintenance is $3,000. She said she is to check what the maintenance includes.
Agreed to participate in ACCO Safety videos.
Voted to authorize Cintas to provide first aid supplies to Lincoln County.
Decided o have Wagnon check with other counties about purchasing a County credit card and what kind of work load is required of the County Clerk office’s purchasing agent.
Adopted a donation resolution with Seminole State College for a wash rack project at the Fairgrounds. The donation is up to $40,000 from SSC to have it installed by a contractor who will be chosen by a sealed bid process with the commissioners to open the bids.
Approved resolutions to dispose of equipment in District 3.