After months of discussion about adding a courthouse parking lot reconstruction to the proposed county jail addition project, the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors were presented with the total budget this week.

Sid Samuels of project manager the Samuels Group informed the Board that with the courthouse parking site work costing $204,578, the total estimate is $8,278,150. Samuels and architect Michael Lewis recommended that the Board round up to $8,350,000 for a bond issue. The Supervisors expressed concerns whether the estimated cost would account for any design changes, as some of the aspects like office space are not finalized. Lewis and Sheriff Marty Arganbright reassured the Board that the cost includes a 10% contingency for possible changes to arise if the bond were to pass.

As all parties have expressed their interest in having the bond vote take place this November, Arganbright urged the stakeholders to progress, “If you want to talk about communication I think now’s the time and it needs to stay on track and we need to know, because we’ll all leave here and then if we don’t hear from you for another week or two, nothing happens. And I need to know and I’m sure the Supervisors need to know step-by-step where do we go now, what do we need to be doing.”

Samuels told the Board that the next step is to decide who would finance this bond, before seeking bond counsel to draft the bond language. He added that August should be the time to craft a communication plan to inform the public on reasoning for the projects. A special meeting is expected next week for the Board to take action on financing.