How much for a new jail?

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PRINCETON — The Bureau County Board should know the estimated costs to build a new jail or a law and justice center by mid-November.

At Thursday’s meeting of the Bureau County Jail Task Force, the task force agreed to hire Wold Architects and Engineers of Palatine to determine the costs of those two building options. (Wold representative Roger Schroepher had attended a task force meeting last spring to talk about the services of Wold.)

Task Force Chairman Joe Bertetto said he has been in contact with the Wold representative and was told the cost estimates could be completed within a couple months.

In discussing the proposed Wold study, Task Force member Keith Cain said he supported going forward with the study.

“At least we’re coming off Ground Zero,” Cain said. “We’re making some progress.”

Task Force member Kevin Knudsen agreed.

“The county board gave us two things to do, to determine the cost of building a new jail, at 40 beds, and to determine the cost of a law and justice center, with the same 40 beds,” Knudsen said. “This is what we are doing.”

However, the longer the county board  waits to make a decision about building a new jail or law and justice center, the more costs will climb, Knudsen said.

The Task Force agreed to ask Wold to give current cost estimates, as well as projected costs with inflation.

On Friday morning, Bertetto said he contacted Schroepher after Thursday’s meeting and was told the study should be completed in time for the Nov. 11 meeting of the Bureau County Board.

Bertetto said Schroepher will contact with Sheriff John Thompson in the next few days to get started. Schroepher will interview proposed tenants of a law and justice center to determine their space requirements, as well as interview the sheriff to determine his needs. Schroepher will then compute these space needs into square footage, and using current standard costs, give a cost estimate for building both a 40-bed jail and a the costs of building a law and justice center that incorporates the 40-bed correctional facility. 

This project by Wold is not to design a building or to consider a footprint or location, Bertetto said. There will be no drawings. The study will only give the task force the construction cost of the two different facilities based on required square footage and comparable recent construction.