Dougherty Commission committee recommends moving forward on jail work
“We decided to move forward with checking on a line of credit. We’re also going to go forward with replacing the electrical locking system. While we’re getting our line of credit moving forward, staff is going to check on the additional list.”
ALBANY – After the Dougherty County Commission declined earlier this month to consider a recommendation to proceed with an initial phase of jail renovations, a second committee has made a recommendation that includes a portion of those renovations.
The commission’s Finance Committee made a recommendation on Wednesday to the full commission to approve funding of replacing the jail’s locking system.
That comes after the Public Works Committee recommended ordering what some officials have identified as the most crucial component of the renovation: replacing the aging air-conditioning system.
The Public Works Committee recommended ordering that equipment quickly because the lead time on the delivery would put its arrival into 2027. That committee also recommended having the county establish a line of credit to fund the work.
“We decided to move forward with checking on a line of credit,” Finance Committee Chairman Clinton Johnson said on Wednesday. “We’re also going to go forward with replacing the electrical locking system. While we’re getting our line of credit moving forward, staff is going to check on the additional list. We are pushing forward with a line of credit for the bigger-ticket items.”
Johnson said that once the county receives proposals from banks on a line of credit, his committee will consider them and make a recommendation on the best offer to the full commission.
“The chiller (air-conditioning) can take a certain amount of time,” he said. “We are working on everything out there. It’s a real big-ticket item.”
The cost for the initial phase of work at the jail is estimated at about $11 million.
During the February Public Works Committee meeting, consultant James Andrews Jr. with Macon-based AH&P Consulting Engineers told commissioners on the committee — Commissioners Victor Edwards and Russell Gray and Chairman Ed Newsome — that cooling equipment is reaching the end of its serviceable life and that parts are becoming difficult to come by.
The equipment, installed during the construction of the jail facility that opened in 1994, is more than 30 years old, and a failure could force the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office to house inmates in other facilities or rent portable chillers.
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