PROGRESS: New Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center progressing

The jail is expected to be finished Sept. 14, with a month of moving in before it is officially occupied.

"A lot of really good things are happening out there," Law Enforcement Center Authority Chair Ron Wieck said.

With a little over five months left of construction, the new county jail is on track to completion.

Shane Albrecht of the project consultant, Baker Group said the administrative side of the building is receiving paint, and drywall and will start looking like offices in the coming months, but the jail area has "a long way to go." On the outside, no work has been done on the parking lots or sidewalks yet.

Half of the prefabricated jail cells have been installed with the rest beginning to be delivered on March 27, Albrecht said.

Albrecht said a variety of other contractors are moving through the building installing duct work, electrical components, insulation, and more. He said on March 17 there were 140 contractors on site.

Albrecht said it estimated permanent power will be turned on in mid-April.

If the contractor is not able to complete construction by Sept. 14 there would be a loss of $15,000 a day at the minimum, based on losing the revenue of 150 federal inmate funding per day, Albrecht said. He added there would be additional costs to the county such as various contracts and staffing expenses.

On March 17 the LEC Authority approved a letter of engagement with Stinson LLP of Kansas City, Missouri, for legal services related to "construction and real estate matters."

Albrecht said Baker Group has worked with Stinson in the past and encouraged the authority to proceed in case problems were to occur with the construction timeline.

Wieck said the authority and Baker Group are working with Hausmann Construction to ensure the timeline is met.

Woodbury County voters passed a $50.3 million bond issue in March 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues, the low bid for the main construction phase came in well above estimates at $58.4 million from Lincoln-based Hausmann Construction. With change orders, the main construction cost is estimated at just under $60 million.

Counting other additional expenses, the project cost stands at $69 million. The new total estimate includes design fees, project management fees, land purchases, bond costs, project change orders and site preparation.

The 122,000-square-foot jail will hold up to 448 inmates; nearly double the roughly 234 inmate-capacity for the current aging facility, located across the street from the county courthouse. The new Law Enforcement Center will also have separate offices for the county sheriff and attorney, plus five courtrooms.

In October 2022, six pre-cast concrete walls fell and broke due to high winds. All the panels needed to be replaced, but Albrecht said it did not add any costs to the project nor create any delays.

For years, county officials faced various deficiencies, compliance issues, operations costs and lack of space in the current jail, built in 1987. Most recently, experts recommended at least $22 million in critical repairs. At the time of the studies, county officials warned critical systems could fail at any time, which would force the evacuation of the jail and require taxpayers to pay millions of dollars to transport and house inmates in other jails scattered around the state on top of the repair costs.

In 2019, the county board of supervisors moved to place a bond issue for a new jail in March 2020. A joint three-member city/county panel, called the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center Authority, was formed. Taking advantage of a provision in state law, the Authority only needed a simple majority for the bond issue, rather than the 60-percent “supermajority” needed for most local government projects funded by property taxes.

The authority is led by Wieck and its members also include Sioux City Mayor Pro-Tem Dan Moore and former County Supervisor Rocky De Witt.

In March 2020, county voters approved a $50.3 million bond. With interest, the 20-year bonds could cost in the range from $64 million to $68 million.

Construction on the project was originally set to begin in early 2021 but was delayed by the rising costs of building materials, triggered by a disruption in supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authority has a visitation policy in place for the construction site. Visitors must have 10-hour OSHA training, Hausmann Construction training and prior approval to visit by the sheriff's office, the Authority and Hausmann Construction. Visitors are also required to leave cell phones in the Hausmann Construction on-site trailer.

Wieck said allowing people to visit the building is both a security concern and requires them to pull the Hausmann Construction staff off their work to guide the tours.

“As authority chairman, I want to see the Hausmann people building a building out there, not conducting tours,” Wieck said.