Sullivan legislators nearing key consensus on new jail design MONTICELLO – An informal poll of Sullivan County legislators during Thursday’s Public Works Committee meeting suggests that they know which firm should design and oversee the jail construction. LaBella Associates is the clear choice of most legislators, even though their early estimate, of about $60 million, is higher than a $45 million rough estimate from Goldberg Associates. LaBella is also the clear choice for Sheriff Michael Schiff, who reminded legislators of some recent bad experiences, including a jail project in neighboring Ulster County, which went way over budget and timeline. “There’s examples on and on and on,” Schiff said. “LaBella doesn’t have a wake in their trail, showing those kind of disasters. The reason you hire a firm like them is it’s done right the first time. You pay a fair market price.” Committee Chairwoman Kathleen LaBuda said after years of mostly treading water, it is time to move. “I think that we need to get the final design in place because that’s going to take six to eight months and then hopefully by sometime next year we can start and go out to the RFP to finish it,” LaBuda said. “It’s going to take two to three years to build the jail, so we have to start it now, sooner than later.” That’s in line with the advice given almost a year ago by the state Commission on Corrections. LaBuda said she will push the legislature to give LaBella some specific directions next month. Schiff: ... its done right the first time midhudsonnews/News/2014/April/11/SC_jail-11Apr14.html
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 14:51:23 +0000
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