The court’s approval for Dinosaur Valley Construction comes following interviews between commissioners and a total of three construction managers — including Lee George Construction and Templeton Construction — and according to County Judge Mark Barr, is a good fit for the project.

“Of the three we had to choose from, I really feel like Dinosaur Valley Construction had, by far, the most experience in building jails,” said Barr. “They have built 30 to 40 jails, and we need someone who has that kind of experience to proceed with this project very quickly. They have laid out a plan where — mother nature willing — they can be done in approximately nine months. Essentially, if the jail bond passes, we could be looking at moving into this new jail this time next year. And that would be great. It would really save the county some money.”

Barr said the company’s fee for the project will be 7.75 percent of the building cost.

“We don’t have that exact figure on the building cost yet,” said Barr. “Based on what Jeff (Heffelfinger, project architect) is saying, we’re looking at between $9 million and $10 million for the building cost. We don’t know for sure because they don’t have all of their material costs in yet. This includes everything, even travel expenses, phones calls and everything else. It’s a turn-key job.”

While commissioners continue to move forward with the project, the fate of the entire effort will rest on a $11.57 million bond issue currently before Howard County voters, with early voting in the election having begun Monday morning.

The commissioner’s court placed a similar bond election on the November 2006 ballot, asking voters to approve a bond for slightly more than $10 million to finance a 144-bed jail, which was voted down by more than 60 percent.

The existing county jail was shut down by the Commission on Jail Standards in November 2006, after the facility’s smoke evacuation system failed to meet requirements during a pair of tests in 2006. The facility was reopened six months later after more than $250,000 in repairs.

Adan Munoz, executive director of TCJS, announced last week during a town hall meeting he would recommend to the commission shutting down the county’s existing jail permanently if the bond election failed to pass.

The cost of the last closure, which lasted approximately six months, has been estimated at close to $1 million.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it