Jail groundbreaking could be next week
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 6, 2015 1:46 PM
Graphic submitted
An artist's rendering of what the new jail will look like.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for the $9.5 million Sheriff Carey A. Winders Detention Center could be held Friday, July 17, at 10 a.m.
Bids for the jail to be built on North William Street and the groundbreaking ceremony could be approved by Wayne County commissioners when they meet Tuesday morning.
An agenda briefing will be held at 8 a.m. followed by the formal session at 9 a.m., both in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
Three of four construction companies that were pre-qualified to bid on the satellite jail project submitted bids.
On Tuesday, County Manager George Wood is expected to recommend that the project be awarded to low-bidder Daniels and Daniels Construction Co. of Goldsboro that submitted a base bid with alternates of $9,491,600.
Also submitting bids were Bordeaux Construction Co. of Durham, $9,885,100, and M.B. Kahn Construction Co. of Conway, S.C., $10,514,300.
The bids were reviewed by Dan Mace of Mosley Architects, the company that designed the jail.
He is recommending that the contract go to Daniels and Daniels.
The alternates, or additions, he is recommending include $45,000 for Tyco Raven institutional sprinkler heads; $5,000 for a two-year detention lock maintenance agreement; $9,000 for an extended two-year warranty for the security control systems; and $15,000 for a Exacq network video system.
Construction is expected to take approximately 12 months.
The jail is being named in memory of Winders, who served as Wayne County sheriff from 1994 until his death in January 2014.
Winders had championed construction of a new jail for many years.
The current jail that adjoins the courthouse has been chronically overcrowded for the past several years. The overcrowding is costing the county nearly $1 million annually to house the excess inmate population in other county jails.
Commissioners have set aside $10 million in a capital project ordinance which allows the project to span several budget years and does not require that the money be appropriated each year.
The satellite jail will be built on the county-owned former Masons department store property on North William Street.
The project will include demolition of that building.
Project manager Jason Hopkins of Mosely Architects told commissioners in April that the jail will be located to avoid close proximity to a convenience store that adjoins the property at the corner of North William Street and Stronach Avenue.
The approximately 38,500-square-feet single-story jail will house 221 inmates.
The building will be T-shaped with the top of the T, where the cell pods will be located, running parallel to Stronach Avenue.
Administration, the kitchen, laundry and other offices will be housed in the leg of the T that will be perpendicular to Stronach Avenue.
It will have a secure, controlled entryway facing that street.
Each pod will have a fenced-in recreational yard.
The satellite jail is the first phase of a larger judicial center that includes construction of a larger jail behind it.
Provisions have been made in the plan to provide for a secure connection between the two.