The Starke County Commissioners reviewed a proposal from the Skillman Corporation for plans for a new elevator at the courthouse.
The construction manager’s fee was set at $12,750 while another $32,250 was approved for other construction manager and general condition fees.
The construction of the elevator is expected to begin in spring 2018 and take three or four months to complete.
The Starke County Commissioners will meet tonight where an ordinance regarding off-road vehicles will be considered on first reading.
Now that the county was awarded a grant to update the courthouse elevator, the commissioners will review a proposal from the Skillman Corporation to move forward with the project. Continue reading
The contractor in charge of the Starke County Courthouse and old jail renovation project is ready to issue construction documents for bid in hopes of wrapping that process up within the month. The commissioners Monday night authorized DLZ to proceed with that process after reviewing the proposed scope of work. Continue reading
The Starke County Commissioners will have a better idea of the scope of renovations to two county buildings after their meeting tonight. Representatives from architectural firm DLZ and contractor Skillman Corporation will share final design plans for the revamped courthouse and renovated former jail. They will also provide a breakdown of costs for the work. Continue reading
Nearly six months after the first inmates moved into the new Starke County Jail east of Knox the architect and builder are recommending a $525,000 addition to the facility. Architect and project manager Scott Carnegie with DLZ told the council and commissioners an automatic auger would catch small items like cellophane and plastic wrappers inmates flush down the toilets and keep them out of the city’s sanitary sewer system. Continue reading
The Starke County Building Corporation expects to pay the final contractor and subcontractor invoices for construction of the new jail in September. Inmates moved into the facility a few weeks ago, but some contractors are still finishing up final projects at the site east of Knox on State Road 8. Continue reading
Warranty and maintenance information for the recently completed Starke County Justice Center will soon be just a few key strokes away. Representatives from the Skillman Corporation are collecting warranty and maintenance manuals from the contractors and subcontractors involved in the project. Continue reading
To use a baseball analogy, construction of the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and Detention Center has rounded third base and is heading for home plate. That’s how Dion Katsouros from Skillman Corporation described the project to the Starke County Building Corporation during their monthly meeting. Continue reading
Work on the courtroom at the new Starke County Jail east of Knox should start the first week of February and be done by the end of April. The county commissioners awarded bids for the project during their meeting last night. Continue reading
The Starke County Commissioners are expected to award bids this evening for the interior build-out of the Starke County Jail Courtroom. The commissioners received eight bids for general services and four each for mechanical and electrical work. Representatives from Skillman Corporation took them under advisement at the Jan. 8 bid opening and have reviewed them to make sure they meet the specifications outlined in the project documents. Base bids range from a low of $167,500 to a high of $227,250, with five alternates each. Continue reading
The Starke County Building Corporation may have been able to save $29,000 had the water line extension from Henry Drive east to the new Starke County Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center been finished by its April 1 deadline.
The existing water lines to the building on State Road 8 at County Road 550 East are not wide enough to provide enough pressure should the building catch on fire. The county and city opted last fall to run new lines to the facility and contract the work out. The Knox City Council accepted a bid from Mark Milo Enterprises to do the work.
“A project like this that is a nice project, it’s a large project where companies can come in and bid it and work for quite a long time, that’s always attractive. The bidding itself, the way we set it up, is going to bring in that competition inherently,” said Cherry.
Scott Cherry told the commissioners that the schematic estimate that had been presented a month prior came out to roughly $11 million, which was a bit high; he said the ideal range was within $10.2 million to $10.3 million. Now, however, after they tightened some of the expenses, they’ve brought the estimated cost down to roughly $10.3 million.
The Starke County Commissioners this week approved two contracts regarding the proposed construction of a new Starke County jail facility.
One contract was signed with Skillman Corporation, who will be handling the construction of the facility. The local on-site construction manager will be Bob Chorba, a Starke County resident. Chorba currently works with Skillman, and has been the project manager for several projects handled by Skillman. A contract was also signed with DLZ, the architectural firm that will be handling the design aspects of the facility.
Lisa A. Lee, partner at Ice Miller LLP, presented a draft timetable for the Starke County Jail project to the jail committee on Friday. The timetable included a list of dates for important steps that must be completed for the project to move forward.
The next committee meeting is scheduled for the afternoon of June 15, when the committee will receive an update from the DLZ Architectural Firm and the Skillman Corporation regarding cost proposals and budgets. Community meetings are expected to be held June 25-30, but that date could be moved sooner if the committee decides to move a month early.
The Starke County Jail Committee recently met with representatives from the DLZ Architectural Firm, Skillman Corporation, Umbaugh and Associates, and Ice Miller Legal Councilors.
The next phase of the committee’s work is the data collection by Paul Downing of DLZ. Downing said after he collects the data, including jail bed needs, he will pass the information along to the architectural team.
Financing possibilities and informing the public have been topics the Starke County Jail Committee has been working on recently. The committee has discussed holding informational meetings throughout the county to bring the public up to date on various options for rehabbing or building a new jail.
Fires, escapes, and a class action lawsuit have brought attention to the liabilities at the jail. Reportedly the second oldest county jail in the state, the facility has been overcrowded at times throughout the past year.
