Armstrong believes he will have jail plans ready in time
Opposition to firing jail architect Jim Armstrong surfaced at a recent meeting of the Jail Oversight Committee. Armstrong, who was hired last April to design the jail expansion, has been given a March 17 deadline to present a complete and state-certified set of plans — or risk termination.
Jail Oversight Committee chairman Herschel Wells said the deadline was a necessary measure to make sure the plans would be approved and available to put out for bids since the bid process itself can take a significant amount of time, further delaying the actual start of construction.
Wells had been concerned by Armstrong’s failure to meet previous deadlines, many of which the architect set for himself, telling commissioners he would have completed plans by a certain date, and then failing to provide them.
This situation resulted in Wells’ decision to have the committee set a deadline of its own.
“It just kept dragging and dragging,” Wells said, “and I talked to [county attorney] Larry Stanley and he said set a date, and then have him meet that. And that’s what we did.”
Wells indicated he wasn’t necessarily opposed to Armstrong as the architect, just the continued delays and missed deadlines. Wells said if Armstrong came up with a set of certified plans on time, he would work with him.
However, local officials seem to be in some disagreement as to what action should be taken if Armstrong fails to meet this deadline. Some feel termination is not a viable option and would result in even further delays while another architect is hired and an entirely new set of plans are drawn.
And some commissioners believe Armstrong might be running up against delays that were beyond his control.
“Do you ever consider sometimes the state drags its feet too,” asked Commissioner Herb Wright, who attended the meeting though he is not on the committee.
“The state does drag their feet,” Wells agreed, “but also our architect has drug his feet too.”
Others supported the deadline, citing the ongoing costs.
“He’s not only drug his feet,” said Commissioner Sally Brock, “he’s gotten $114,000 out of us.”
Although Armstrong has not contacted Wells directly, both Carl Bouldin and Carl Hulett said they had received phone calls from him Tuesday morning indicating he would meet the deadline.
Wells said he was still going to make the motion to terminate Armstrong at the full commission meeting this Monday if he failed yet another deadline, even though indications are that there would be some opposition to that action.