WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — An emergency declaration for repairs to the Marathon County jail could sunset next week.
County supervisors heard an update Thursday night from Interim Administrator Lance Leonhard on the progress of the repairs, which he says are 99% completed.
“The jail has been assessed by the Department of Corrections and inmates are back in the jail, so that project is sufficiently complete such that the emergency declaration can be declared over,” Leonhard said on Thursday.
The $2.2 million project was funded through an emergency declaration in August. Estimates originally pegged the cost at $1.5 million, but an extra $500,000 in funding was approved in October for additional shoring and upgrading to stabilize the building.
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Despite that Leonhard says the project, which was completed by Findorff Construction, did come in slightly under budget.
“Certainly, the project was not an inexpensive one. It was a significant undertaking. But overall the budget that we had estimated for the project, we came in at or under that budget,” said Leonhard.
He added that the repair work was by no means a patch to hold the facility over. “The intent of the project was really to address what had been long-standing issues based on the determination of our engineers and address those issues in a meaningful way that secures the future for that facility,” he added.
Some smaller repairs still need to be made this spring, but Leonhard describes those issues as “cosmetic.” Since they would be made after the emergency is canceled, he says those repairs would be subject to the county’s standard bid processes.
The emergency was declared in August after inspectors discovered faults in the concrete that hold the structure up. While the work was completed, inmates were either sent to other jails in neighboring counties or released to house arrest and GPS monitoring if they qualified.
Thursday’s board meeting was informational only. Supervisors will meet again on Tuesday to vote on the resolution, which Leonhard expects will pass.
