News

Panel OKs Expansion of Sheriff's, Jail Facilities


By Tom Palmer
THE LEDGER

Published: Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 6:55 a.m.

BARTOW | County commissioners agreed Wednesday to proceed with three public safety construction projects totaling $70.5 million.

POLK COUNTY COMMISSION
In other action Wednesday, the Polk County Commission:

Approved an agreement with Polk City to exempt development in a defined core area of the city from impact fees.

Adopted solid waste, fire and street lighting assessments for 2008-09.

Approved an agreement with Lakeland to secure long-term commitment to use the North Central Landfill.

Approved a $1.7 million contract with Rodda Construction for the construction of the second phase of Christina Park.

Approved $140,000 in supplemental funding from the tourist tax for three Youth Basketball Association events.

Approved a $458,854 agreement with Post Buckley Schuh & Jernigan to prepare construction documents for improvements at Jan Phyl Village Park and $205,300 for work at Loyce E. Harpe Park.

Approved a $152,137 contract with Wade-Trim to do an environmental assessment of Loyce E. Harpe Park and agreed to transfer $25,000 to current capital budget to construct a comprehensive drainage system at the park.

Approved a sublease with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop a canoe launching area on the Peace River at Homeland.

Approved a $207,600 contract with Chastain-Skillman for engineering for the East-West Connector Road between E.F. Griffin Road and U.S. 98 and related work.

Approved a recommendation to pay Clark/Nikdell/Powell $199,700 in tourist tax funds to produce the Polk County Tourism & Sports Marketing Guide.

Approved a $188,811 impact fee mitigation for MultiSpecialty Medical Complex LLC.

Recognized Kathleen High School Principal Cecil McClellan Jr. for being chosen National Turnaround Principal of the Year.

Approved a change at the Ringling Bros. elephant facility to add a training facility for elephant handlers and additional barns. The facility is on Old Grade Road north of Lake Alfred.

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Two of the projects, the $25.3 million Polk County Sheriff's Office operations center, communications center and crime scene investigation building and the $3.9 million Emergency Operations Center, will be built at the Public Safety Complex that is part of a county office complex on Winter Lake Road.

The third project is the $41.2 million expansion of the South County Jail near Frostproof.

The vote was unanimous for the first two projects, but was 4-1 on the jail expansion, with County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson dissenting.

Wilkinson contended that expanding the facility would only result in excessive jailing of residents.

"I think it's immoral what we're doing,'' he said, citing a study that showed Polk has one of the highest proportional incarceration rates in the United States.

But Gary Hester, chief of staff for the Polk County Sheriff's Office, countered that the study Wilkinson cited is "bogus."

"We don't apologize for arresting criminals,'' he said.

Commissioner Jack Myers and Clerk of the Courts Richard Weiss pointed out that the money for the jail expansion was covered by an $88 million bond issue the County Commission approved in 2005.

The 114,000-square-foot jail expansion will provide room for 768 additional inmates. In addition, the expansion will involve the construction of a new kitchen, an infirmary and a video visitation facility.

Peter R. Brown Construction has been hired to construct the jail expansion.

Register Construction & Engineering will be the contractor for the Winter Lake Road projects.

The new Polk County Sheriff's Office building complex will replace and consolidate facilities in downtown Bartow and at the Bartow Air Base. The complex will consist of the three-story, 100,193-square-foot operations center, the one-story, 13,303-square-foot communications center and the one-story, 16,000-square-foot crime scene building.

All three buildings will be constructed to withstand strong hurricane-force winds.

The one-story, 11,594-square-foot Emergency Operations Center will replace the existing center, which is in a leased office at the Bartow Air Base. Public safety officials say it is too small, and contains too few facilities for extended operations during a disaster, such as the 2004 hurricanes.

[ Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or 863-802-7535. ]


This story appeared in print on page B2

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