The Faribault County Commissioners okayed over $10 million in bids for the new jail/law enforcement center at their regular meeting last week Tuesday.

However, three of the items on the bid list were not okayed at this time. They were for the overhead doors, the access flooring, and the kitchen. The first two will be re-bid.

The kitchen was the topic that got the most discussion by the commissioners, as they debated even having a kitchen.

Currently the meals for the jail are catered in by Parker Oaks in Winnebago.

Commissioner Tom Loveall said that the decision would be easier if they could know if the catering situation would last for the next seven to 10 years or only the next two.

“We are looking at a cost of $118,000 for the kitchen, and we would not save all of that amount if we don’t have a kitchen, because we would still need a serving kitchen,” he said.

The commissioners decided that they needed to go to the project consultant and get a cost estimate for a serving kitchen, and a breakdown of costs for a “full-blown” kitchen.

They also instructed County Sheriff Mike Gormley to try and find out if they can get a contract with Parker Oaks for a number of years.

The construction people need to know about the kitchen soon, said Project Manager Mike Kearns at the meeting, because it would make a difference in some of the basic construction.

Kearns said he was happy with the bids, and the amount of bidders. Responding to a question from the board, he said that there had been 10 bids for the heating/air conditioning, and another eight bids for the plumbing, for instance.

Commissioner Bill Groskreutz asked if the bids were generally higher or lower than the construction estimates. Kearn said that most were lower, but that some were higher, such as the detention and monitoring equipment. “That is basically because there are very few companies across the country that handle these things,” he said.

Groskreutz was the lone dissenting vote to okaying the bids. He stated that he was not happy with the total amount of the bids.

That total was listed by Construction Analysis and Management, Inc., as being at $10,362,829 for all phases of the contract, including phase one and two. This was the construction phase, called phase three.

Some of the larger bids of the 25 categories that were accepted last week included:

– Electrical, $1.195 million, Javens Electric

– Plumbing, $929,069, Kaduce Plumbing & Heating

– HVAC, $919,200, Javens Mechanical

– Detention Equipment, $600,000, WDSI, Inc.

– Masonry, $568,700, Wilcon Construction