Wood County Jail Project on Schedule

Tuesday, April 25th, 2023 -- 12:00 PM

(Karren Madden, Marshfield News Herald) Six months after officials broke ground on a new Wood County Jail, passersby are starting to see the building take shape.

According to Karren Madden with the Marshfield News Herald, in the past few weeks there has been a lot of progress, said Reuben Van Tassel, Wood County facilities manager. The Wood County Board in early 2021 approved building the new jail at an anticipated cost of $58 million, however, when bids for the project came in in September, those estimates climbed to $98 million.

The new jail is being built to hold up to 300 inmates, eliminating the need to house Wood County inmates in other jails, which costs the county about $1.4 million a year. Mild weather during early 2023 has allowed construction crews to be ahead of schedule and construction is expected to be finished by late 2024.

Tim Nordlund, project manager, said that could change if there is a lot of bad weather or they have supply issues. So far, building supplies have arrived as they are needed, he said. Phil Kalman, project superintendent, expects workers to start filling in the walls on the new building's second floor sometime in mid-May.

The second floor will be worked on first because of the layout of the building, he said. The project is on budget at this point in the process, said Laura Valenstein, chairwoman of the Wood County Jail Construction Ad Hoc Committee.

The committee has been meeting every month or two, following the Wood County Board meeting, to get updates on the project and consider any change orders that require committee approval. As the project moves forward, it may need to meet more often, Valenstein said.

Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker said he's impressed with how the project is going. The crew is making a lot of suggestions involving advanced technology that can be used to make the jail more cost-effective.

The engineers suggested putting a new type of device in the jail that detects smoke, carbon monoxide and other potentially dangerous compounds in the air, Van Tassel said. The device will centralize the system, be harder for inmates to tamper with and likely save the county about $2,000 a year in maintenance costs.

As the building continues to grow, space to stage materials for the construction continues to shrink. Construction crews have fenced off a portion of the parking lot across Market Street from the courthouse for placing materials as well as parking for construction workers.

It has caused some inconvenience for people who were using it for courthouse parking, Van Tassel said. The parking lot across Baker Street is not at capacity, Van Tassel said. On days when there is a jury or other event that could draw a lot of people to the courthouse, there could be some challenges in parking, he said.

There have been some complaints from people trying to cross Baker Street, but the problem is mainly during high-traffic times in the morning and afternoon when people are going to and from work.

The county put up flashing lights that pedestrians can activate when crossing Baker Street in the designated crosswalk about halfway up the block the courthouse is on, Van Tassel said. He asks people driving through the area to watch for the flashing lights and pedestrians trying to cross the street.

The project includes moving the Wood County Courthouse's front entrance to an area near where Avon Street had been. The entrance won't be moved until the end of the project, Nordlund said. The county also is working on hiring a second facilities manager, Valenstein said.

The county knew the second manager would be needed when the large jail project is finished. It's also needed as Van Tassel's time is taken up with being a liaison between contractors and the county for the jail project.

The new jail also will need eight more corrections officers, Becker said. The county is hiring four new officers this year and four next year to have them trained when the new jail is ready.

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