Published: November 17, 2008 07:54 pm            

Judicial center construction begins

Local News

Somerset — As if with the slamming of a gavel, work is set to officially begin today on the long-planned Pulaski County Judicial Center.

The Pulaski County Fiscal Court unanimously approved a letter of intent awarding the bid for the project to D.W. Wilburn Construction during a special meeting yesterday.

D.W. Wilburn was the lowest bidder for the judicial center’s construction needs, including all labor, equipment, materials and services. The company’s bid came in at $16,250,000, over $2 million less than the next lowest bid.

Hugh Bennett, an architect with the firm Bennett and Rosser, told the court that nobody was close to D.W. Wilburn’s bid and they were about $4.5 million under the estimated cost.

“We were very concerned about the estimate,” said Bennett. “We absolutely hit it perfectly.”

Bennett said that since the bid came back lower than expected, a few features for the project that were eliminated for cost can be added back into the project.

“We’d cut several things down to bare bones,” said Bennett. “We want to add those back in.”

Among those items are a parking lot where the city tennis courts were located, bullet resistant glass in certain areas of the building, and an area where the judges can pull their vehicles straight up to the building and go inside. He said there were also five or six items that must be addressed because of safety code issues.

“There’s nothing elaborate or nothing that exotic, we’re just picking up some things we dropped and adding them back in,” said Bennett.

Bennett said these items will not add to the cost significantly and they will be able to keep available a full 10 percent contingency funds.

“The balance of the fund will go back in the AOC (Administrative Office of the Courts) fund,” said Bennett.

First District Magistrate Kenny Isaacs wanted to know if the new judicial center will be set up for video arraignments.

Bennett said from what he understood, that wouldn’t be the case since the AOC hadn’t asked for that feature to be included in the center’s plans. He added that if the court wanted that done, they should ask for it and see what happens.

The architect then told the court the county is getting a good deal on the cost of the building.

“(The cost) is approximately $202 (per) square foot,” said Bennett.

“You got an amazing value,” he added. “I’m certainly delighted with it.”

Other base bids included Denark Construction at $18,495,000, David Construction, $18,525,700 and Able Construction with a bid of $20,440,000.

The judicial complex will be located in the area of Market Street and South Maple Street area in downtown Somerset.

The plan to build the new complex took properties that were along the downtown fountain square and south Maple Streets, along with Market Street. Properties which were purchased for the judicial center and have come down through the demolition process include the former storefronts of The Pink Bee, Kasandra’s Pie Barn, God’s Food Pantry and Brandywine Studios, Ron Wilson’s office, the Smith Staples building, Coldiron offices, the Salutsky building, David Rogers Photography, The Mills building, Southern Office Supply, Bowan building and the First and Farmers Bank drive-thru.

The Pulaski County Judicial Center project was one for the 18 judicial center projects authorized by the 2005 General Assembly and funded by the 2006 General Assembly. The original project plan was for a 77,000-square-foot judicial center with an estimated total project cost of $22.4 million.

The Pulaski County Judicial Center will include circuit, district and family courts, judges offices, the circuit clerk’s office, probation and parole and those things directly related to the court system. The building will not include offices of the county government. Those offices would remain in the current courthouse.

Among the more prominent features of the consolidated judicial complex will be a security system, including metal detectors located at a single public entry point through which all visitors must pass.

The estimated date the center will be complete will be January 2010.

While the Pulaski Fiscal Court had to approve awarding the bid and has to approve those items related to money since it goes through Pulaski County’s budget, all other types of decisions go through the Judicial Planning and Development Board.

The board is made up of Pulaski County Judge-Executive Barty Bullock, chair; circuit clerk George Flynn, vice chair; magistrate Mike Wilson; circuit judge Jeffrey Burdette; attorney John Prather Jr.; and Sarah Boswell Dent, representing the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC).

        

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