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Two county projects — a new public safety building and expanded Hays County Jail — are behind schedule for completion.
During a presentation to the Hays County Commissioners Court, Codi Newsom, program manager for the public safety bond program with ECM International, said the public safety building was scheduled to be substantially complete on July 25, 2020, but has been “adjusted roughly 11 months due to permitting adjustments.” Likewise, the substantial completion date of the jail addition is now March 24, 2020. Newsom noted that final completion usually falls within 30 days of substantial completion.
“This has been adjusted by 5 months and then this adjustment had a trickle-down effect on the training building and jail renovation, putting those substantial completion dates May 31, 2020, and Aug. 4, 2020, respectively,” she said.
In addition to the timeframe delay, Commissioners unanimously approved a change order, a revision of the project execution plan and two additional service requests for work related to the Hays County Public Safety Bond projects. Commissioner Lon Shell recused himself from a vote on an additional service request with ECM International due to his wife’s employment on a project-specific basis with ECM.
Newsom said at the Hays County Jail site — located at 1307 Uhland Rd — the main contributor to the schedule adjustment was the existing utility lines that were routed through the center of the site.
“So as part of the project we had to relocate these utility lines to construct the addition and as long as those lines were in place we weren’t able to access those areas of construction that were along the critical path, so this was our main contributor to the schedule adjustment,” she said.
Newsom said the biggest hurdle at the public safety building project, which will be located behind the Hays County Government Center at 712 S. Stagecoach Trail, occurred during the permitting review process.
The change order #2 with Turner Construction will increase their contract by $2,195,250, the additional service request with HOK will increase their contract by $179,044, and the additional service request with ECM, International will increase their contract by $277,280.
The total increases — $2,651,574 — will be funded within the Public Safety Bond through the owner’s contingency fund, meaning no additional funds outside of the bond will be needed to cover the contract increases. Newsom said about $2.7 million will remain in the contingency fund.
In other business, commissioners voted to execute two grants from the Office of the Governor Homeland Security Grants Division: a Hays County HazMat Team Monitor Maintenance grant of $20,000 and a Hays County SWAT Team Capability Improvements grant of $104,860.
Likewise, the Court authorized the submission of two grant applications to the Texas Veterans Commission. The funds would be used to add a Healthcare Liaison position and Emergency Financial Assistance for the Veteran Services Office “to assist veterans and their dependents,” as well as for the continued services of the Veterans Treatment Court.
Commissioners also voted to execute a Victim Assistance Coordinator grant from the Office of the Criminal Justice Division in the amount of $110,859.93 with a cash match of $22,171.99. The grant will be used to provide the salary, benefits and training of a Victim Assistance Coordinator position in the Hays County District Attorney’s office.
