The new Dallas County Law Enforcement Center has been running well-under budget throughout its construction, and because of that, the County was able to put those savings back into the facility for an aspect they were originally going to have to do without.
Sheriff Chad Leonard went before the Board of Supervisors recently to propose an expansion to the jail offices in the center. Leonard says as they looked at the plans, it became clear they needed a firm plan for expansion. However, the logistics of the connection from the first jail pod to the next presented some challenges. To that end, Leonard says the designers proposed an expansion of offices north of the jail pod, which would allow the eventual connection to be done seamlessly. “In one of the most recent meetings, we talked about in the future, whether it’s 15-20 years down the road, when they drop that next pod down, how are we going to connect those pods? And I just wanted to make sure that everything was stubbed into the new building so they can just put it in and hook it up. I wanted to make sure we had a plan going forward for that next pod, because that pod will take place at some point.”
Leonard adds, the additional offices, which were included in preliminary drafts of the facility’s plans, will be used for a variety of tasks, ranging from probation and parole, to mental health care, and attorney-client conferences. The expansion, however, would cost the County approximately $240,000 to cover all the proposed change orders for the various contractors. The good news is, the project had over $900,000 still in the contingency fund, which covers any changes needed. Therefore, even after approving the offices expansion, the project is still around $700,000 under budget. Given that information, the Board didn’t hesitate to approve the request.
The new law enforcement center is estimated to be completed some time between late June and mid July of 2019. To hear more from Leonard, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.