ALPENA — Alpena County officials are scrambling to make slight design changes to plans for a new county jail after construction costs were significantly underestimated and bids came in higher than expected.

Officials are trying to make sure projected costs, funded through a tax increase approved by voters in 2017, fall within the $11.2 million budgeted.

As bids for the jail began to roll in, the projected cost ballooned to nearly $3 million over preliminary estimates. That has forced officials to scale back — and, likely, delay –the project. The jail was originally announced to be done in spring or early summer 2020.

With some tweaking of the design, the overrun has already been scaled back from the original $3 million, but still stands at about $937,000 more than budgeted.

At a special workshop hosted by the Alpena County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Alpena County Sheriff Steve Kieliszewski updated commissioners on where the project is and where it’s going in the near term.

Kieliszewski said the root of the problem stems from the cost associated with pre-designs drafted by Eckert Wordwell, an architecture firm out of Kalamazoo, which was hired by Oak City Contracting, of Alpena, early in the process. Neither of the two companies are currently involved in the project.

Representatives from Oak City and Eckert Wordwell could not be reached for comment on this story.

Kieliszewski said about 15,000 square feet of the new facility wasn’t accounted for in price estimates in the original design, and the county didn’t learn of the mistake until after the project started. He said that, if the mistake would have been realized earlier, adjustments could have been made and scaling back wouldn’t be needed.

“Instead of asking for 1 mill (in property tax), we probably should have gone for something higher,” Kieliszewski said. “Right now, it isn’t going to do any good to point fingers. It’s not going to get us anywhere. The people voted to build a new jail, and that is what we are going to do. And, no matter what it ends up to be, it is going to be a hell of a lot better than what we have now.”

Originally, the new sheriff’s office and correctional facility was supposed to be 40,000 square feet in size. That was lowered to 36,000 square feet to try to save money. Now, Kieliszewski said it will likely be in the ballpark of 30,000 square feet.

The number of detention cells that will be built is also in question. Originally, there were to be 108 cells, with room enough to expand to 145 cells in the future. Now, there will be significantly fewer.

“We have been in touch with our jail consultant to give us some good, hard numbers as far as what our future looks like, in terms of housing inmates, but still haven’t gotten a firm number,” the sheriff said. “We do know we will have to reduce it down further. It could be 90 cells or it could be 80 cells. What that number is right now, I don’t know.”

Kieliszewski said the current jail averages about 60 inmates per day and the county wants to make sure there is enough space for future increases in occupancy rates.

Other factors that led to the higher estimates were an increased price for steel, and the cost to have that steel shipped to Alpena. Kieliszewski said bidders on the project were also from out of town, which resulted in higher bids.

“We didn’t have any local bidders,” he said. “All of them are busy and have work lined up.”

County board Chairman Brad McRoberts said that, although the news wasn’t good, things could have been worse. He said it is better that corrections be made now, before construction begins.

“There has not been a shovel in the ground and construction hasn’t started, yet,” McRoberts said. “Until we start laying foundation, it is still a work in progress and not over budget. The bids are coming in over-budget and we are are trying to get a design that fits in what we can afford.”

The jail committee is slated to meet Friday and discussion will begin on what further changes to the design can be made and what the savings will be. Granger Construction, the county’s project manager on the jail proposal, will continue to work with the winning bidders to get the best price, Kieliszewski said.

“The office side of the plan is done,” Kieliszewski said. “But we are going to have to start from scratch on the jail side.”

County voters in November 2017 approved a 1-mill tax increase — or about $50 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house — that will be levied over the next 20 years to pay for the new jail.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpeanews.com.