Floyd County law enforcement center project bids come in millions over estimate

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Bids opened Thursday afternoon for the new Floyd County law enforcement center and courthouse updates project came in several million dollars over the initial construction cost estimates that were the basis for a bond referendum held in spring 2018.

At that time, the hard construction cost was estimated at about $10 million.

The bids opened Thursday were for a total of just over $15 million.

That $15 million is not an official figure, and is based on an analysis by the Press, adding up the lowest bid received in each of 11 different categories for the construction project.

A couple of bidders offered lower prices if their bids were accepted in more than one category, and some offered a deduction if courthouse offices are moved outside the building for several months to allow construction workers unrestricted access.

Taking the largest possible discounts and the largest possible deductions into account, the lowest bid total based on the figures presented Thursday is $14.4 million. That does not include other project costs that are likely to be at least several hundred thousand dollars more.

In May 2018, the Floyd County Board of Supervisors asked for and county voters overwhelmingly approved selling $13.5 million in bonds to finance the project. That was based on construction cost estimates, contingency allowances, other costs and the costs to sell the bonds.

Thursday evening, Linda Tjaden, the county supervisor who’s been leading the LEC and courthouse project for more than two years, said the bid numbers received Thursday will require some tough decisions.

Sid Samuels, owner and president of The Samuels Group, the firm hired by the county board as the construction manager for the project, said his company would go through all the bids and make sure the numbers are correct and that all the bid instructions were followed.

“We’ll do our homework and start putting stuff together and tabulating and we’ll do our absolute best to have something for next Tuesday,” Samuels said, referring to the next regular Board of Supervisors meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Tjaden said she expected the bids might come in higher than the estimates.

An earlier bid package on site work and earthmoving drew only one bid and came in higher than the estimate for that part of the project, so the bid was rejected and the work added to the general bid package that was due Thursday.

Tjaden said she’s been telling the people and groups she talks to about the project that they may be required to scale back some of the work.

“We went to the referendum for $13 million 500 (thousand), and that’s the number. It’s up to us as a board to say, we know that costs can go up, but that’s a reality we have to face. And so what do we do with that?” she said.

“Depending on what Sid comes back with as a recommendation, once he’s done his homework on all of this, we may have to make some really difficult decisions. We just have to be prepared for that,” Tjaden said.

She said one area that may need to be scaled back is the planned updates for the courthouse, which includes all new windows, a new heating and cooling system to replace the dozens of window air conditioners that stick out of almost every window in the courthouse, fire sprinklers and more.

“I hate to say that,” Tjaden said. “We just want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”

The board has faced the possibility that bids could come in higher than expected for some time.

When the Samuels Group began working on the project, its cost estimates were higher than those that had originally been presented by the project architects and designers, Prochaska & Associates.

Since then Samuels, Prochaska, the board and members of a project core team — Tjaden, County Auditor Gloria Carr and Sheriff Jeff Crooks — have been talking about ways to save money.

“We’ve talked about various options, but I’m not prepared to talk about any of them at this point,” Tjaden said.

One idea that has been discussed publicly is to pay for some of the courthouse work through county general funds, on the idea that this is work that should be done anyway, whether or not a new county jail and Sheriff’s Office was being built.

“Some things we should know as a board to do on a regular basis — every year look at things that just naturally should be upgraded,” Tjaden said. “We tried to look at some of that and thought, we’ve got the construction crews here anyway, maybe we can fund part of that from a different fund. But again, we have to be very careful. What are we talking and how much money?”

The main part of the project is the construction of a new county jail, to replace the current jail on the top floor of the courthouse. The state jail inspector has said for years that the current jail is inadequate, and not safe for detainees or county employees.