Armstrong submits complete jail plans
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Armstrong brought along some formidable backup in the form of Tennessee Correctional Institute personnel including Peggy Sawyer, executive director David Hensley and Warren County jail inspector John Hanna.
Jail Oversight Committee chairman Herschel Wells got right to the point once the meeting had been called to order.
“I guess the main question, Jim, is where we’re at on our plans,” Wells said, “as far as having the TCI requirements, etc.”
He then queried Armstrong about the problems he had pointed out at the previous meeting and asked if the changes had been made, including changes to the size of the cells and making sure each cell had windows.
Armstrong said they had been made and indicated he had written approval for the current set of plans in the form of a letter from TCI, which Sawyer confirmed, passing out copies of the letter to committee members.
Wells continued to grill Armstrong about various aspects of the plans and was assured by Sawyer that each segment of the plans he was questioning met TCI requirements as shown on the drawings.
Armstrong also presented a letter signed by David Voss from the State Fire Marshal’s office dated March 14 stating the plans had been approved with a couple of stipulations and field verifications which could not be conducted until actual construction was under way.
Sawyer went on to assure committee members that TCI was essentially there to help, not hinder the certification of the facility.
“For whatever it’s worth, we’re not going to just give you this letter and disappear into the sunset,” Sawyer said. “We’re going to be around, and as the building goes up, we’re not going to nose around, but if you want us to come around, give us a call. And one of us will come around and check things out and if we spot something, we’ll point it out to you.”
Some commissioners wanted a comment as to how good TCI considered Armstrong’s plans to be.
“Peggy, with what you have seen with these plans here, are these plans here as good as any plans you’ve seen in any other counties you’re working with as far as the jail is concerned as far as our size of jail that we’re building,” asked commissioner Carl Bouldin.
“I would say so,” said Sawyer.
Jail inspector John Hanna agreed.
“From what I’ve seen, though I’ve not been able to thoroughly study it, it appears to be in order,” Hanna said.
The committee members then commended Armstrong for meeting the deadline under difficult circumstances.
“Thanks for getting this done,” Wells said. “You took a lot of heat off this committee and a lot of heat off the commission because the people in this town were thinking we weren’t going to move and they were getting anxious.”
A schedule for the bidding process was then set up, with the plans going out to contractors April 1, a pre-bid set for 10 a.m. April 10, and a bid awarding April 29.