Van Iwaarden awarded jail project

ALAMOSA — Though the lowest bidder is still higher than they anticipated, Alamosa County Commissioners awarded the bid for the detention center expansion and jail remodel to Van Iwaarden Builders Inc.

"We can possibly still work with this but there are probably going to be changes to what we're doing with the detention center," said Alamosa County Commissioner Michael Yohn.

The bids were opened on a special meeting held April 5 but weren't decided on until yesterday's meeting.

Their base bid was $9,531,570; however it is subject to change. If the project was to include a holding cell addition and interior modifications to areas such as the office break room, booking, medical cells, reception and entry areas then the total would be $10,391,010. The bid states that it would take 548 days to complete it, including the additions.

"We're all in a bit of a shock," said Alamosa County Commissioner Darius Allen. "One of the thoughts I had was to award the bid to the lowest bidder and work with him and do some value engineering and see if we can get a number we can all live with.

Bob Van Iwaarden is okay with that plan.”

"We fully expected to have to value engineer this," Van Iwaarden said. That's just a given with the bust in the budget. We've somewhat started that process already. And just for your information a full two-thirds of this is local suppliers, vendors and [sub contractors]."