Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass is preparing to award bids for the planned $4.2 million expansion of the Baxter County Detention Center through a court order.On June 27th, 35 bids were opened and announced by SouthBuild Team Construction Manager Don Abernathy. SouthBuild Team is a Tennessee-based construction group especially targeted toward jail projects.
The project breaks down into 19 bid packages representing the various construction components needed for the expansion. From those 19 packages, Judge Pendergrass says the court order he is about to file awards bids in 13 areas.
He says bids were not received in three areas, and three others were rejected. Additional information on the court order concerning the three rejected packages indicate in two cases packages will be bid again and in a third the particular, unspecified function will be completed by the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office.
Those bid packages rejected through the court order or not having a bidder will be resubmitted by August 15th at 3:00 p.m. in the Baxter County Courthouse.
The two-page court order lists the bid packages by number, the awarded entity and the bid price.
Those awarded bids for larger packages of over $100,000 are Masonry IV, Inc.; HDI Contractors; Dilbeck Excavation; Tom Davenport Concrete; Crawford Electric; Cushman’s Climate Control; C.A. Owens and Associates; and LaGasse Construction, Inc.
Judge Pendergrass told KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot news some of the bids were under estimates, while others were over. He calls the bid for the ground work “good.”
Construction of the jail expansion will be funded by a one percent sales tax collected for six months. Collection began on April 1st and will run through September 30th.
At this point, only the amount of collections in April, reported in June, is known.
For the month of April, the one percent sales tax generated $541,138.54.
An ongoing one-quarter of one percent sales and use tax for continued jail operation expenses will begin January 1st, 2019.
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