Crawford County jail's builder says completion nears

Construction work is on schedule on Crawford County’s new jail, located just east of Van Buren on U.S. 64. The jail is expected to be completed in October, with the first prisoners occupying it in December.
Construction work is on schedule on Crawford County’s new jail, located just east of Van Buren on U.S. 64. The jail is expected to be completed in October, with the first prisoners occupying it in December.

VAN BUREN -- Construction of Crawford County's new jail is on schedule and under budget with an expected opening date of Oct. 15, County Judge John Hall said.

Work on the $20.5 million jail has been ongoing for more than 13 months. Don Abernathy with construction manager Smith-Doyle Contractors of Cordova, Tenn., said Friday that construction has gone smoothly at a good pace and he thought the project could be finished ahead of schedule.

He didn't anticipate any delays since the roof on the jail is completed and crews are working indoors out of the weather. Workers were in the finishing phase working on such things as painting and ceiling installation, Abernathy said.

Hall said the project is about $1.2 million under budget so far but cautioned that the project isn't finished yet.

"I guess I'm just optimistic," he said. "I expect the wheels to come off at any moment, but they keep holding on."

If the savings remain to the end of construction, he said, he'd prefer to use the remaining money to pay down the county's bond debt, which would reduce the remaining payoff period on the jail revenue bonds from eight years to seven.

If the jail ultimately is finished by Oct. 15, Hall said, it will have to undergo testing for about 60 days to ensure everything is functioning properly. Under that schedule, he said, the first inmate would move into the new jail around mid-December.

The new jail is being built to hold 260 inmates. The jail also will be the new headquarters of the sheriff's office.

The current jail, located across the street from the county courthouse in downtown Van Buren, was built in 1989 to hold 64 inmates, but time and growth in Crawford County have made the jail overcrowded and obsolete.

The county jail was expanded at one point to hold as many as 88 inmates, but the Arkansas Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee has continually warned the county to reduce overcrowding and has threatened at times to take action to close the jail.

The most recent threats spurred the Crawford County Quorum Court to retain the SouthBuild Team of jail builders to design a new jail and to go to county voters, who approved two sales taxes in in 2014 to build and operate the new jail.

Crawford County residents are paying a 0.5 percent sales tax to generate money to retire bonds sold to finance the jail construction.

The tax will expire when the debt is repaid.

Voters also passed a 0.25 percent sales tax that will be permanent to raise the additional money to operate the new jail.

The county broke ground on the jail in May 2015. Of the 24 subcontractors, Hall said, more than half of them are from Crawford, Sebastian and Washington counties.

The SouthBuild Team consists of SouthBuild as the project manager, Smith-Doyle as construction manager and Spirit Architecture as the project architect, Abernathy said.

The team has built jails for 55 counties in Arkansas, he said, including jails in Scott, Washington and Yell counties.

The team also is working with officials in Franklin, Marion and Polk counties to help them develop jail projects, Abernathy said.

State Desk on 06/20/2016

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