Remodeling of a detention facility in Sioux City, Iowa. Conceptual plans call for the remodel of a detention facility.

https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/woodbury-county-will-be-using-more-covid-19-recovery-funds-to-cover-costs-for-new/article_ebada97f-fcfd-525a-a0db-49e939cd4210.html The Woodbury County Board of Supervisors has approved the use of additional COVID-19 recovery funds for a project tied to the new county jail. The board agreed to earmark $550,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to install utilities as part of the 28th Street improvement project. The joint county-city street project will pave 28th street from Highway 75 to Outer Drive and extend water, sewer and gas lines and and fiber optics to the new Law Enforcement Center. County Building Services director Kenny Schmitz said HY Consulting, a Columbia, Maryland-based consulting firm hired by the county has approved of the use of American Rescue Plan funds for the street project items. The county will spend $132,492.50 for fiber optics and $796.141.50 for water and sewer. A bid of $2.69 million by Sioux City Engineering Company was approved in July 2021 for paving the street extension, with a total cost estimate of $3.16 million, which included additional costs for fiber optic, additional gas main, easements, architect and engineer fees and project contingencies. As of August, the costs totaled $2.98 million due to contract change orders. The city is paying for $2.8 million for the construction and $300,000 for an MidAmerican Energy facility addition, but the county was responsible for the rest of the 28th Street costs. County Finance Director Dennis Butler said because the cost of the project has risen, they are going to use the ARPA funding instead of cash reserves. He said the allocation is up to $550,000, meaning some could return to be used in other ways. He said there is around $1.4 million in county ARPA funding yet to be allocated. To bridge the gap between actual costs of the overall LEC project and the voter-approved bond, the Board of Supervisors has allocated $10 million of the ARPA relief funding to the construction project. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ https://images.apollo.ai/articles/pdfs/3125973_45142_06-09-2022.pdf Sioux City Journal Sioux City, Iowa c Copyright 2022 \ All Rights Reserved Date: Frequency: Circulation: Article Size: Ad Value: Page/Section: Relief funding could cover $11.3 million in jail expenses CAITLIN YAMADA cyamada@SiouxCityJournal.com SIOUX CITY - The recreational area, medical area and HVAC are just a few of the areas of the Woodbury County Law Enforce-ment Center that could qualify for COVID -19 relief funding use, ac-cording to project managers. Shane Albrecht of the Baker Group and Kevin Rost with Gold-berg Group Architects, presented to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors potential areas Amer-ican Rescue Plan Act relief funding could be used. There were $11.3 million in costs identified that could be paid with ARPA funding including: - $1.09 million for the indoor/ outdoor recreation areas; - $3.79 million for the intake and medical area; - $527,078.65 for video arraign-ment in a small courtroom; - $774,000 for 12 percent of the HVAC; - $174,782.56 for video visitation space and; - $4.10 million for Polyurea coated steel jail cells. The supervisors have allotted $14.2 million in ARPA funding for the jail facility. Previously it was determined a one-time $10 mil-lion allowance of recovery funds to be spent on government services. The supervisors asked those in-volved with the project to identify qualifying expenses the ARPA dol-lars could be used for in the new jail. The Woodbury County plan was partially created by looking at Sarpy County in Nebraska on how they are qualifying expenses with ARPA dollars for their new jail. Albrecht said the dollar amounts were based on the square foot-age and quantity as well as design fees. The recommended areas total more than the allotted $4.2 million so there was room for the outside auditing firm or county attorney to deny areas. Rost determined 12 percent of the HVAC costs were for ventila-tion improvements, similar to how Sarpy County determined HVAC costs. Rost said he along with Albrecht, LEC Authority Chair Ron Wieck and Dennis Butler, county finance director, felt the identified areas were appropriate for the ARPA funds and "easily justifiable based on our interpretation of the rules!' Butler said at the next meeting he will present a letter to the board on which areas he believes are 99 per-cent applicable. The board also previously di-rected Butler to research CPA firms to review the expense. Butler presented a proposal for technical and advisory services for the Information Administration of American Rescue Plan Act Program and Master Services Agreement with UHY Consulting, Inc. UHY Consulting from Columbia, Maryland is the firm assisting Sarpy County in their ARPA usage. Supervisor Matthew Ung spoke with the Managing Director Jack Reagan. He said initially he did not want to use a consulting firm, but is now "warming up to the idea." "One area that I think we need to consider that this sort of service is more important on the back end than the front end," he said. "After we approve a project or set out on a goal, there still needs to be public facing reporting!' Ung said a firm like this provides reports the board could post online and show what has been spent and approved on the ARPA funding al-location. The County would pay the firm on a set hourly rate through 2024: _____________________________________ https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/opinion/columnists/jim-rixner-covid-relief-funds-shouldn-t-be-used-for-woodbury-county-jail/article_19207122-a373-56c9-9569-b455d3254d5b.html Recently, the Journal editorial board endorsed the decision of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors to use $15.6 million dollars in federal COVID relief funds to cover the higher than expected cost to construct a new jail. I strongly disagree with both the endorsement and the use of those funds to build a new jail. The need to construct a new jail is not in dispute. However, both the cost and the use of COVID funds to fund the new jail are entirely unacceptable and the residents of Woodbury County should continue to make their objections known to the supervisors. We should applaud and support those who have raised their voices against this ill-advised decision. The Regulars JIm Rixner - web Former Sioux City city councilman Jim Rixner is shown in a portrait at the Sioux City Journal offices Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. Sioux City Journal photo by Tim Hynds Tim Hynds, Sioux City Journal First of all, the design of the new jail is based on a plan to house over 300 inmates with possible expansion to over 400 prisoners in the future. These numbers are apparently based on consultant estimates. You may recall the Husky Report of several years ago that by 2020 Woodbury County would need a jail to house over 600 prisoners! This reminds me of the classic definition of a consultant as a person whom you ask what time it is and he steals your watch! The jail should be built to house a maximum of 300 prisoners to save money and it will still more than adequately meet local needs. These additional beds are somehow justified by the notion that those beds will be filled by federal prisoners as a cash cow to the county. The Feds pay $53 dollars a day to house one of their prisoners and, when all costs from food to utilities to staffing are included, it ends up at best a zero sum outcome. There are also policy decisions that should be made to reduce the number of individuals that even end up in jail. Electronic monitoring rather than jail should be used for any non-violent offender, with the only exception made for drug dealers. I am sure other decisions such as expedited hearings can be made that present no threat to the public. In addition, the practice of charging a person arrested for bringing a controlled substance into the jail with a felony because the initial arrest search failed to find that substance is absurd. A minor possession charge ends up being a felony charge with significant jail time. Furthermore, there should be alternate budgetary decisions made to provide funds for the additional cost of construction. The county was the recipient of the huge windfall in tax revenue from the CF Industries expansion and much of that money is earmarked for rural road construction (a laudable goal) but perhaps a few million dollars of the revenues could be transferred. Also, the county has a substantial amount of its bonding authority and current low interest rates should significantly lessen the impact of infrastructure borrowing on the taxpayer. And, if the Biden administration infrastructure bill is passed, even more revenue could be coming to the county, which could then backfill the rural road fund. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/woodbury-county-forced-to-replace-abstract-for-its-farm-dating-to-1880s/article_268f3855-1b32-513c-ba15-e9ed7e0a0876.html/ Aug 17, 2021 Supervisors are considering a sale to help solve a major budgetary dilemma due to a dramatic rise in the price of building materials for the Law Enforcement Center. In March 2020, county voters approved a $50.3 million bond issue to replace the current jail on Seventh Street, which is said to suffer from troubling deficiencies. But a series of bids for the project have come in at a total cost of over $78 million. _________________________________________________________ https://images.apollo.ai/articles/pdfs/2906492_45142_06-12-2021.pdf Sioux City Journal Sioux City, Iowa Mayor concerned about jail costs CAITLIN YAMADA CYamada@SiouxCityJournal.com SIOUX CITY -- Mayor Bob Scott voiced concerns Friday about the 36 percent increase in costs for the proposed Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center, saying the project architect failed the joint county-city authority charged with building the jail. County officials estimated the main phase of the jail construction at $43 million. But the low bid, from Lincoln, Nebraska-based Hausmann Construction, came in at nearly $58.4 million. Shane Albrecht of the Baker Group, the project manager, said the jail was estimated at $479.34 per square foot. Compared to some other jails that were built prior to COVID -19, Woodbury's cost is about $100 more per square foot. At a special council meeting Friday, Scott asked if everyone knew the project was going to be around $400 per square foot. "If that's the case, why didn't we know it was going to be (higher) " Scott said at the meeting. When the project was taken to bid, Scott said they were told an increase could occur, but not as much as 36 percent. He said steps should have been taken to reduce the costs before the project was bid. Albrecht said a $10 million in-crease was estimated before it was bid. County officials have blamed the increase on the rising cost of construction materials tied to the disruption of supply chains during the pandemic. Albrecht said his firm recommended the Law Enforcement Authority wait to bid the project or find addi-tional funds to make up the dif-ference. Friday's special meeting was intended to update the council on the latest developments on the Law Enforcement Center proj-ect. The meeting was requested by Councilman Dan Moore, who represents the city on the Author - ity. The Authority Board is sched-uled to vote at 1 p.m. Monday on whether to award a contract or rebid the project. In March 2020, county voters approved a $50.3 million bond measure that calls for future property tax increases to pay for the Law Enforcement Center. In addition to the pending gen-eral contract, the Authority Board already has approved contracts totaling over $20 million for site work and soil settlement mon-itoring, pre-fabricated jail cells and the project manager and ar-chitect. To make up the funding short-fall, the county board of super-visors voted Tuesday to allocate $15.6 million of the county's share of COVID -19 relief funds to the project. Page: 1 / 1 ____________ As of 1/12/23 project is cancelled https://www.sioux-city.org/home/showpublisheddocument/30417/637540746345270000 A 28E Agreement was approved via Council Resolution 2020-0469 passed on June 8, 2020 requiring the City to convey by City Deed to the LEC Authority real estate land located at 3701 28th Street totaling approximately 38.27 acres for a sum of $900,000 and to reimburse Woodbury County for all off-site infrastructure improvements along 28th Street (except fiber infrastructure improvements) and along the drainage way through and northwest of the site for gravity sanitary sewer main installation, including professional fees (survey, design, construction services including material testing and cost of any easements) with a maximum reimbursement of $2,800,000. Project is included City of Sioux City FY 2022-2026 CIP Page 389 ____________________________________________ https://images.apollo.ai/articles/pdfs/2875829_45142_03-05-2021.pdf New county jail delayed High material costs push back Woodbury Countys building plans MASON DOCKTER mdockter@siouxcityjournal.com SIOUX CITY Construction on the new Woodbury County jail, originally expected to begin this spring, has been delayed until at least the fall due to steep spike in material costs, local of cicials say. The price of building materials essential to jail construction steel, concrete, PVC, copper have jumped by as much as 70 percent in some cases. Lumber prices in particular have gone through the roof. The sharp increase are partially tied to scores of Americans tapping into low interest rates to remodel or build homes, driving up demand for materials even as mill and factory output was diminished during the OVID -19 pandemic. A lot of the dif erent pieces that will make up that building, have gone up drastically since October, said Ron Wieck, chairman of the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center Authority, the county-city entity that oversees the new jail. Wieck said Thursday that even fuel prices have gone up so much due largely to diminished crude oil production over the last year, coupled with the winter storm that hit the Gulf Coast in February that the initial dirt-work phase would be more expensive than of cicials had expected. But he anticipates prices will relax in the coming months; in the meantime, the Law Enforcement Center Authority will be watching the markets closely. Were also hearing that by early fall people that are in the know are telling us that theyre Please see JAIL, Page A4 Jail From A1 supposed to come back down, he said. Just over one year ago to the day, voters in Woodbury County approved $50.3 million bond issue to replace the countys current, 34-year-old jail, which local law-enforcement authorities have said is overcrowded and in poor condition. The old jails heating and air-conditioning systems were of particular concern, and officials have warned that sudden failure of these or other systems could prompt an evacuation of the jail and an expensive relocation of inmates. Necessary repairs to the existing building would reportedly cost more than $22 million. Plans called for construction of new law enforcement center on the northeastern outskirts of Sioux City, at 3701 28th St. The 110,000 square foot center that would hold up to 450 inmates, nearly double the roughly 235 inmates in the current jail, which is just across the street from the county courthouse downtown. Officials had originally hoped that the new jail would be open by 2022. But because of the finite dollar figure that local officials are permitted to spend, high material prices are non-starter for the time being, Wieck said. You have one of two options. Option number one is to move forward and pay the price. And were limited on that, so thats not really an option for us, he said. Option number two is to watch the process and attempt to move forward at time when prices come back down, and fall within the range of the dollar amounts that weve got to work with. Wieck said that the Law Enforcement Center Authoritys plans and paperwork are on track. Once the ink is dried on the final agreements and memorandums between the county and city, all that will remain is for material prices to come back down. Were on time with where we want to be on, 100 percent on the plans and the bidding process, he said. But were not ready to do that because of material costs right now. TIM HYNDS, SIOUX CITY JOURNAL The Woodbury county Law Enforcement center, which houses the county jail, sheriffs offices and courtrooms, is shown in downtown Sioux city in this 2020 Journal file photo. construction on new jail, set to replace this one, has been delayed by spike in material costs. __________ https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/no-4-story-of-2020-woodbury-county-voters-approve-new-jail/article_ae1b7e65-2e21-582e-b7eb-94c92263605c.html Dec 22, 2020 SIOUX CITY It may have been simply a formality when the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors approved the schematic plans for a new jail, Oct. 27, but it reflected something that had been on the drawing board for months. During a special election in March, Woodbury County voters with a 57 percent affirmative vote agreed to set financing through increased property taxes for a $50 million jail that will be built on a 38-acre plot of land in the vicinity of the Lake Forest Mobile Home Community. County officials pitched a new modern jail as a more cost effective and longer term solution to repairing the current jail, part of the Law Enforcement Center built in downtown Sioux City in 1987. A consultant identified more than $22 million in necessary repairs to the jail's heating, cooling and ventilation systems. They warned critical systems could fail at any time, which would force the evacuation of the jail and cost millions of dollars to transport and house inmates in other jails around the state. Advocates said a larger jail will help eliminate ongoing overcrowding at the current facility, which has been running at or above capacity for years. To help ease the referendum's passage, the county board and Sioux City Council took steps to create a joint city-county authority, called the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center Authority. A three-person panel led by former state legislator Ron Wieck oversees the authority. By combining the two jurisdictions into one entity, the county was able to tap into an Iowa law that says authority referendums only require a simple majority for passage. That's well below the normal threshold of 60 percent approval for measures that raise property taxes. In addition, the 110,000-square-foot facility will be able to hold up to 444 inmates, nearly doubling the roughly 235 inmates that can be housed in the current jail. The design for the new facility, submitted by Goldberg Group Architects, includes not only cells for inmates, but also offices for the county sheriff and attorney, plus five courtrooms. Final plans are due by Feb. 16, 2021, and bids from interested contractors could be received by March 10. The construction start date is estimated for April 1. _______________________________________________________________________________ As of October 15, 2020, this project is in design. Bidding is anticipated to begin in February of 2021 with construction to follow. The scope and value of this project have yet to be verified. No inquiries are being accepted at this time.