Soaring costs complicate Idaho County jail project

GRANGEVILLE — Skyrocketing construction costs are forcing the Idaho County commissioners to make some dramatic changes to plans for a new jail to be built north of town.

The commissioners met in regular session Tuesday with a contractor and an architect to discuss major cutbacks and shifts in expenditures to the proposed 48-bed, $12.9 million design. The original plan, which was scheduled to be under construction last spring, has risen in cost from about $8 million that would have housed 56 inmates and included extensive remodeling of the Idaho County Courthouse. No physical work has yet begun but the commissioners are facing the prospect of ever-rising costs of materials in the new year.

“If we don’t move on this,” said Commission Chairperson Skip Brandt, “we’ve got to have another plan.”

The proposed jail would be located near the Idaho County Airport search and rescue headquarters. It would replace the current jail that was built in 1956 and houses about 11 inmates. The project will be paid entirely by federal funds, including a two-year, $5.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund and $3.4 million in the American Rescue Plan Act and economic recovery-related funding.

The original proposal included relocating the sheriff’s office, drivers license and vehicle licensing departments, dispatching and investigative offices from the current courthouse to the new complex. Commissioner Denis Duman, who is heading the project, said Tuesday those plans have been scuttled, along with any notions of remodeling the courthouse.

After reviewing several of the line-item costs, the commissioners Tuesday decided to reopen bids on the electrical, heating and air conditioning and plumbing components. Duman said one of the biggest cost items was a plan for a commercial kitchen at the new jail. That has been scaled down to a warming kitchen.

Landscaping designs, plus some outside concrete work, also are off the table.

Duman said some of the cost problems are due to subcontractors setting their own prices.

“We don’t know what we’re getting by allowing subcontractors to set their own prices,” Duman said. The county has “no contingency budget. If we don’t have a defined design … there’s no contingencies to cover.”

Duman said it is hoped to begin moving earth on the project this spring. It is expected to take 15 to 18 months to complete.

The commissioners will continue to discuss the issue in coming meetings.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.