Deatherage: grade jail proposals publicly

Published 7:10 pm Friday, November 29, 2013

Beaufort County Commissioner Stan Deatherage wants the entire Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to publicly grade requests for qualifications the county will receive regarding construction of a new jail and facility to house the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Deatherage plans to make that request during the board’s meeting Monday, according to the board’s tentative agenda.

“It’s an idea that we do it all out in public,” Deatherage said.

The commissioner said some members of the board prefer working as committees to get some of their work done, but this matter needs to come before the full board to ensure transparency.

“This will get around the ‘No, we’d rather do it in committee.’ All right. Got it. Got it. We’ll do it in committee. We just want to do it at the (full board’s) meeting. We’ll do it in January,” Deatherage said.

During its Nov. 4 meeting, the board approved seeking qualifications from entities interested in doing architectural-design work for a new jail and sheriff’s office. It also approved seeking qualifications from entities interested in providing construction-management services regarding the building of a new jail.

The decisions do not commit the county to spending money to build a new jail, which would be located in the Chocowinity Industrial Park.

Voting for the two items were board Chairman Jerry Langley and commissioners Ed Booth, Robert Belcher and Al Klemm. Commissioners Hood Richardson, Gary Brinn and Stan Deatherage opposed the items.

Richardson, Brinn and Deatherage have said a new jail is not needed. They believe the existing jail is adequate to meet the county’s jail needs. They have said Beaufort County taxpayers cannot afford to pay for a new jail.

Richardson told the commissioners who voted for the architectural item that they have already “picked your man” for that work.

Jim Chrisman, the county’s finance director and assistant county manager, told the board that when it comes to architectural firms seeking the work, “We’ve got a list of four or five who have expressed interest.”

Interested firms must submit their qualifications statements by Dec. 9.

“The qualification packets will be reviewed on the basis of experience and expertise in similar past projects that will include the construction of a new detention center facility with attached Sheriff’s Office and 911 Center,” reads a notice about the request for qualifications on the county’s website.  “The detention center will contain approximately 250 beds and total square footage of the facility is estimated to be approximately 85,000 square feet.”

The Board of Commissioners meets at 5 p.m. in the Beaufort County Administrative Building, 121 W. Third St., Washington. To review the entire agenda for the meeting, visit www.co.beaufort.nc.us. At the right side of the page, click on “Agenda” under the heading “Next regular Board of Commissioners meeting.”

The jail committee meets at 1 p.m. Dec. 11 at the county’s administrative offices at 121 W. Third St., Washington. It will review the submitted qualifications from interested parties.

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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