Following the deadline put forth on Industry Day, the Houghton County Jail Committee has received rough-orders-of-magnitude (ROMs) from several potential contractors in order to ascertain the value that should be assigned to the bond that is to be proposed in the next meeting of the Houghton County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Three companies submitted ROMs to the committee, Miron Construction Co., Granger Construction, and Bradway Enterprises. The values of all three submissions were very similar, so it was decided to take the average so as to produce a value that would be most reflective of the actual work to be performed. After some discussion, the committee decided to recommend a bond value of $28 million in the form of a 30-year bond of 1.26 mills, which would ultimately cost the average resident of Houghton County 35 cents per day.
This value is down from the previously estimates $32 million that was produced in the last round of proposals. Faith Morrison, the chair of the committee, says “It’s already $4 million less than what we went for last year, and even though it’s a year later, which we were warned about inflation, and we had a terrible year for inflation and construction costs… we believe we have found that it’s reasonable to go down to this lower number.”
The money collected by the millage will be used solely for the construction of the jail and Sheriff’s office as well as the associated site development to be able to build the new structure on the designated site.
The Houghton County Board of Commissioners will be voting on the recommendation at their August meeting. More information is available here.
