Contractors to bid on jail addition
Seven contractors, two of which are local, will be allowed to submit bids for expansion work at Warren County Jail.
Approved at a meeting of the Jail Oversight Committee Monday night were Apex Construction and Tri State Development, both based in Warren County. Also approved were Sain Construction of Manchester, Midstate of Cookeville, Ray Bell of Brentwood, RCR Building Corporation and Medical Construction Group, both of Nashville.
The contractors will have 30 days to submit a bid after they have been notified of eligibility.
Meanwhile, work on clearing the five acres the county has condemned, which is owned by Doug Smith and two of his sisters, Elaine Simmons of Oak Ridge, and Kaye Clement of McMinnville, still has not begun due to further legal problems.
Apparently the Smith family, though not contesting the county?s right to take the property, is contesting the amount of land to be taken, saying the county should only need around 2.5 acres.
This situation has resulted in architect Jim Armstrong having to revise the preliminary drawings to reflect the need for the entire five acres. Armstrong explained not everything was included on the preliminary drawings.
?The missing items are the expansion, the direction, and the impound yard,? said Armstrong. ?And given the expansion, we need some place to put the exercise yard, so I?ll draw the full plan of how we?re going to use that property.?
Some of the commissioners rankled at the continued delays.
?Actually they?ve held us up for about 50 days,? said Swanson Bennett. ?We voted on the 18th of June to do this. So they?ve cost the county probably a lot of money already.?
County Attorney Stanley indicated he felt confident with the county?s legal claim to the property from the condemnation proceedings, and that he would let the Smiths? attorneys know that work would begin on clearing the property.
Local contractor Dirt Works won the contract to clear the land for construction.