Davis approves pact on jail

FARMINGTON — Quality comes at a price, and Davis County commissioners know it.

The County Commission chose quality over pricing this past week when it selected a construction company to build the $24.8 million jail expansion.

Commissioner Dannie McConkie said government bodies typically pick the low bidder, but that wasn't the case for this project.

"This is not a low-bid kind of thing," McConkie said. "This is a top bid, a quality thing."

Heading up the expansion project is the same company that built the original jail — Layton Construction.

"They know a little bit about building jails," McConkie said. "You would hope — they built the original jail. They have an excellent track record."

Davis County has a long history with the construction company. Layton Construction has done work on the Davis County Courthouse and built several schools in the county.

Earlier this week, county coffers got a $24.8 million boost when the final transfer of the voter-approved bonds went through, Davis County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings said. Voters approved to continue paying an increased tax rate to fund the jail expansion (at the same rate they were paying to build the original jail).

Davis County Sheriff Chief Deputy Kevin McLeod said Layton Construction promised to sign a guaranteed maximum cost contract that would cap hard construction costs for the expansion at about $21 million to $22 million.

The jail has been seriously overcrowded since first opening its doors, McLeod said. Double-bunking, prisoners sleeping in hallways and regular breakdowns are just a few of the problems of trying to run a jail that was built for 192 inmates but often holds more than 500.

In an effort to cut costs, officials might use 2-inch-thick steel walls to separate inmates. In late 2004, county sheriff's officials toured an immigration jail in Tacoma, Wash., that uses a slim steel-wall system. Typical jail walls are 4 inches thick, McLeod said.

Davis County Sheriff Bud Cox said approving a construction team is just the first step in a long process that isn't expected to end until fall 2006.

"It's been a long road," Cox said. "It's exciting to be this close, but we're still not close enough."

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