By Sue Tone for Daily Courier
Yavapai County Board of Supervisors approved a new Criminal Justice Center for the Quad Cities – Option one of three – after hearing from Facilities and Parks Director Kenny Van Keuren at the Wednesday, August 7th, board meeting in Prescott.
Van Keuren presented three proposals, recommending Option one to the board: a 93.9KSF facility with 144 beds and two courtrooms, plus medical, food service administration and laundry. A co-located non-custodial mental health facility will be part of the facility that will total about $68M to build.
The mental health facility is part of all three options, and its programs will include intercepting and providing treatment care rather than booking individuals with mental health issues into an in-custody environment.
“Option one is within the project budget, meets the needs of the stakeholders and, as a new facility design, will include the most up-to-date building systems and provide for efficiency in life cycle cost and staffing,” Ronald Ecker, senior project manager for Kitchell, the company that reviewed and produced cost estimations, stated in a letter dated August 5th.
The county contracted with Kitchell in December this past year to provide owners representative services.
Chinn Planning, Inc. produced a jail assessment study in 2016 indicating renovations on the Gurley Street facility (former jail) and expansion and repairs to the Camp Verde jail facility were not practicable. The study recommended construction of a new facility on county property located on Prescott Lakes Parkway to the west of the Yavapai County Juvenile Detention Center.
Van Keuren said he would proceed to advertise for Requests for Qualifications for architectural and construction-manager-at-risk services.
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