LIMA — Building a new juvenile detention facility may cost more than anticipated.
Allen County Commissioners met with the county’s buildings and grounds department and a representative from K2M Design to discuss progress in designing a new, 32-bed, 21,000 square-foot detention facility to be located on North Cole Street. The county had received a grant from the Ohio Department of Youth Services to cover 60 percent of what was anticipated to be a $6 million project, meaning that the Ohio agency would cover up to $3.6 million, with the county to cover the rest. However, as the project now stands, the center may cost as much as $7.5 million to construct.
“We’re in the final stages of the design, and the cost estimates were significantly higher than the original grant,” Commissioner Jay Begg said. “So there are a couple of endeavors we’re taking on. One is to work with the state to see if they will fund the additional requirements we’re being told are needed to make this building do what it is designed to do. The other is to redesign some things that don’t have an operational component to them but that we can deal with and can reduce costs.”
Begg said the $6 million figure was determined by the Ohio Department of Youth Services using a formula that is now outdated and no longer used.
“As we did our due diligence, it came out to be slightly bigger and more expensive,” he said.
Potential changes could include installing a flatter roof and changing some of the access areas for building maintenance. Begg said that this could postpone construction until potentially early next year.
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