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Six firms vie for chance to design Reno jailAug 24, 2011 (The Hutchinson News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Six architectural firms, including two outside Kansas, hope to design Reno County's next jail. "There are some great proposals in there," said County Commissioner Dan Deming at a Tuesday meeting of the Reno County Jail Study Committee. The difficulty for jail study committee members will be narrowing the list, Deming said. Only firms experienced in designing jails were asked to submit their qualifications. Companies responded with thick reports that described their staff members' expertise and projects they've done. The Reno County Commission ultimately will select the architect, but Commissioner Brad Dillon hopes the list is pared to a single recommendation by the time it reaches the board. Interested in the job are the designers of two county jails the study committee toured this year: the Ford County Jail, designed by HMN Architects Inc., Overland Park, and the Butler County Jail, overseen by Treanor Architects, Topeka. Five years ago, Treanor Architects produced a preliminary design for a new Reno County Jail. Voters, though, rejected a sales tax hike to pay for it. Treanor Architects still wants a shot at designing the jail, and this time, the site will be different. Instead of shoehorning the jail into the courthouse campus as was the plan in 2006, the jail study committee formed this year is focused on state-owned land near South Severance Street and Blanchard Avenue, about a mile south of the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. On Monday, Johnnie Goddard from the Kansas Department of Corrections in Topeka, along with Hutchinson Correctional Facility Warden Sam Cline, Deming, County Administrator Gary Meagher, and Lee Spence, chairman of the jail study committee, met in Cline's office and then drove to the site. Previously, Cline has sounded reluctant to sell land that the prison uses or could use, but Deming was encouraged by the visit. Deming said the idea of sharing services -- from laundry to food -- between the prison and the future county jail was raised, and officials with the prison and the Department of Corrections "are not opposed to that idea," he said. A face-to-face meeting with Department of Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts is expected to take place by Sept. 15. On another planning front, Daniel Friesen, with IdeaTek, Buhler, told the study committee that establishing computer and video communications between the courthouse and the proposed jail site three miles away is "fully within the capability of fiber optic." He gave a top-end estimate for a buried line of $100,000. County officials intend to put a jail question on the November 2012 ballot. ___ (c)2011 The Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, Kan.) Visit The Hutchinson News (Hutchinson, Kan.) at www.hutchnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |