Wait, wait, and wait

Well it seems that it will be the middle of August until the new jail is open. At Tuesday’s Quorum Court meeting Jail Administrator Bobby Brown brought a list of items that he says must be completed before work on resealing the floor can begin. This was the same issue that was raised at the last court meeting. But now nearly a month later the court gets a list?

Log Cabin reporter Stefanie Sampson reports Brown saying, "The key is, it won't open until it's safe for our officers - bottom line." But as I recall in the last meeting the issues were mainly cosmetic in nature and had little to do with officer safety. In fact Brown said he had already taken a prisoner work crew over to the new facility to do some work.

Some of the more interesting comments that were made by the JP’s are those of JP Diana Kellar, JP Mark Bailey, JP Dan Thessing, and JP Jerry Park.

Speaking of the list of uncompleted items Bailey said,

"I just want to know which of these items are show-stoppers for the jail to be opened. I'm not worried about money. I'm focused on crossing the goal-line. In my opinion, it's been way too long".

Way too long indeed. But …

JP Diana Kellar said the process could not be rushed to get the project finished.
"At this point, we can cast blame. We can say things should be open, but the jail will be open when it's ready. The best is being done to get it completed. We can't rush people to get it done," Kellar said

We’d have to disagree, we think the county should make the contractors work around the clock at their expense to finish the job as quickly as possible. Now say this project was a building going up in the private sector and the owners were told the project would be complete last December, do you think that the owners would be hee-hawing around while their building was sitting idle?

Some JPs questioned why the non-essential items could not wait to be fixed until after inmates begin to occupy the jail.

Park responded, "If you have workers in the jail after inmates are already occupying the areas, you have potential problems."

Now our question is if this were true then how does the current jail manage to get things fixed when they break? Doesn’t the county pay for plumbers and other professional repair services when they need them? It would seem to us that some non-violent inmates could be house there in areas that need little work. Although the smell of the new floor sealant might get pretty bad.

Speaking of the new floor coating, could it be applied in those finished areas while work is being done on others? After all according to Mike Callahan of Taggart Foster Currence Gray Architects Inc. of North Little Rock the new jail is ready for inmates.

According to Callahan, who is project manager, the jail already belongs to the county. He said the county has owned the jail since the certificate of substantial completion was presented and signed March 6. He said at that time, the jail was also certified for occupancy.

"This is a huge project with a lot of complex facilities. There are going to be a few problems after it opens. We could go through this list and fix everything, and get everyone moved in and find 10 more items later," Callahan said.

If this is so and the jail has been certified as ready for inmates then what’s the hold up. Could part of the problem be as JP Thessing suggests a lack of communication.

JP Dan Thessing said he wants to make sure all parties are working expeditiously to get the project completed.

"I want to see the right hand talking to the left hand and see inventive people working to get this done," Thessing said.

Any way you look at it this project has become a nightmare for all involved…
That includes us tax payers too…