New jail project is moving forward on schedule, sheriff says

By Crystal D. Hancock

Nevada Daily Mail

Plans are moving along as scheduled for the funding and construction of the new Vernon County Sheriff's Office and jail.

"We are very pleased that we have been able to stay within our budget allotted for the construction of the new facility. We have done everything we can to plan for the worst case scenarios possible in our area, affecting where and how we place the control center, appropriate passageways and other items such as this," Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman said.

Originally, Billie Curtis had donated five acres of land for the new jail project. However, after much deliberating, she has officially decided to donate an additional eight acres of land, making a grand total of 13 acres of land for the endeavor and for any future plans that can be made to add anything to the facility if the need arises. "With this extra land donated by Mrs. Curtis, we can remain to stay in our budget but still be planning for the future in the meantime," Peckman said.

With the additional donated land, plans for entrances and other access roads have changed. By the looks of things, the access roads to the new facility will actually end up being a shorter distance than previously planned. With shorter roads, a lot of money will be saved.

After meeting with more than five different financing companies, it has been decided that Heritage State Bank of Nevada will be in charge of the finances of the endeavor.

Heritage State Bank of Nevada President Rob Barrett said, "We are very excited that the commissioners chose us for this project. We are also very anxious to work with them and very pleased that they chose to work with a local bank, keeping as much business as possible in our area. We will be working hand in hand with the commissioners along with architect Larry Goldberg to do all that we can to keep the project up and going as scheduled."

"When looking at different financing companies, many things have to be taken into consideration such as interest rates, pay back, early payoff penalties and other aspects. Operation money will be needed to get started until bond money starts coming in," Peckman said.

"The commissioners want the bonds paid as promptly as possible, hopefully being sooner than the 20 years originally planned for. They are being very strict and conservative on the financing construction. Heritage State Bank is very intent on providing as many bonds to local investors as possible. They will be readily available to interested locals," Barrett added.

Peckman also recently met with a security company in St. Joseph, Mo.

"I spent an entire day with the security company looking over even the smallest of details. We discussed the most effective and cost efficient keypad entries, locks, cameras, etc.," Peckman added. "We came up with many new ideas and many questions for the security company that they had never heard before. In all of the planning for the new facility, we have made plans to put many things into effect that have never been done before in any other jail facilities."

Peckman goes on to explain that there will be a sufficient number of security cameras placed in the facility, enough that it will be possible to catch anything that happens in the facility on video. "If something happens in the jail, we will have it on video and will be able to use this video evidence in court situations if it comes to that," Peckman said.

Peckman and commissioners have also taken many other items into consideration. "With the way the market has been recently with contractors, we have to get a construction manager, someone who can find the contractors and get the local ones involved," Peckman said.

Just this week, Peckman met with a radio vender to get his thoughts and ideas about cost efficiency and availability of communications systems.

Many things are being looked at such as IT, security and radio equipment.

A surveyor has been hired as well as a geotech to do core samples of the soil on the donated land.

"If everything continues to come together like it has been, we will break ground as early as September. Getting an extra month or two of work in before winter hits could save us a lot of time and money. Everything is flowing good at this point and we are right on track with our original schedule. It seems like everything is happening very quickly, however every aspect is being researched and looked at sufficiently," Peckman added.