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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Task force wants a cheaper plan for new men's prison
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Members of Gov. Larry Rhoden's Project Prison Reset task force have ruled out various sites for a new men's prison, including the Lincoln County site where work had already begun. The group instead now wants proposals for 1,500 to 1,700 men's beds, capped at $600 million for everything, including furnishings and possibly land, at or near the current state Department of Corrections sites in Sioux Falls and Springfield, as well as at possible new locations in Mitchell and Worthing. Prison consultant does Q and A on Tuesday The task force made those decisions in a meeting Tuesday that started at 10:30 a.m. and adjourned at 6:59 p.m. The proposals from the Office of State Engineer and the Lincoln County site's contractor, JE Dunn Construction, are to be delivered in time for the task force's next meeting on July 8, when its members are supposed to decide on a final recommendation. Gov. Rhoden has been planning to call a special legislative session on July 22 for state lawmakers to consider the recommendation. Whether that can still happen no longer is clear. Several times on Tuesday, Republican Rep. Greg Jamison asked whether the governor's timeline can be met, and the task force's chair, Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen, put off answering him. A JE Dunn official guaranteed that new proposals would be delivered for July 8 but he acknowledged they might lack detail. 'It's a tall order, no doubt,' Vance McMillen said. Republican Sen. Steve Kolbeck asked whether the new proposals could include things such as steel cells fabricated by Trussbilt in Huron. 'You're going to solve the problem now, but you're kicking the can,' McMillen answered, saying that legislators would have a repeat of the current overcrowding problems in 40 years. The $600 million ceiling is less than the $825 guaranteed maximum price that JE Dunn Construction and Henry Carlson Construction had given in a joint proposal for the Lincoln County site. Their offer was the only one received. The project was designed to last 100 years, but it was derailed during the 2025 legislative session when the House of Representatives refused to authorize spending for it. Former Gov. Kristi Noem's administration had planned for several years to build a replacement for the outdated and overcrowded State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, and the Legislature established an incarceration replacement account to fund it. A 320-acre plot of farm ground in Lincoln County appraised at $7,910,000 was purchased from the state Office of School and Public Lands. A group of local landowners opposed to the plan quickly formed and tried various ways to block it. In January, Noem resigned as governor to become the new federal Homeland Security secretary and Lt. Gov. Rhoden automatically became governor. Days after that, the House refused to authorize the funding. Rather than try again, Rhoden issued the executive order establishing the task force. JE Dunn's McMillen said on Tuesday that a 100-year approach was now out the door, given the task force's decision to see what can be done on a $600 million budget. He said the proposals would instead be designed for 50 years. Mitchell remains in the running despite its location 70 miles west of Sioux Falls. Mitchell Area Development Corporation and Chamber CEO Mike Lauritsen spoke, as did Davison County Commission member John Claggett and Mitchell Area Housing president Terry Sabers. 'We have a unified leadership group in Mitchell who would like to see the prison come to Mitchell,' Lauritsen told the task force. 'We would like to do a formal presentation at your next meeting.' Current DOC employees will be surveyed to see whether they are willing to drive from the Sioux Falls area to Mitchell or Worthing. House Republican leader Scott Odenbach made the motion to seek the $600 million proposals and indicated that getting acceptance from the Legislature is key. 'Part of this bows to the political,' he said. 'We know that whatever we do, we have to get to two-thirds.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
JE Dunn, Nabholz tapped for proposed $825M Arkansas prison
This story was originally published on Construction Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Construction Dive newsletter. Award: State prison Value: $825 million Location: Franklin County Client: Arkansas Board of Corrections Nabholz Construction and JE Dunn have been tapped to build a proposed $825 million, 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County, Arkansas, that would be one of the largest public investments in recent state history. The Arkansas Board of Corrections voted to approve the contracting team made up of Conway, Arkansas-headquartered Nabholz and Kansas City, Missouri-based JE Dunn on Thursday. The goal of the project is to address prison overcrowding at the state as well as county level, according to the project website. It would house minimum- to maximum-security inmates. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the purchase of the 815-acre property in the Vesta community just outside of Charleston to host the prison in October 2024. However, the state has not yet secured funding for the project, and a bill to appropriate up to $750 million for the prison failed multiple times in the Arkansas State Senate earlier this year, according to 40/29 News. Many Franklin County residents have pushed back on the plans, citing insufficient infrastructure, challenging topography, a lack of workers and fear of declining property values in the area. Opponents have questioned the Board of Corrections' $825 million price tag estimate. In March, an amendment to a failed appropriations bill would have established a restricted reserve fund allocating $1 billion for the project, 5 News Online reported, while Gravel & Grit, a nonprofit created to oppose the project, pegs the total cost at $1.5 billion, not including infrastructure upgrades. Nonetheless, the Corrections Board is using $75 million that had previously been appropriated for prison construction to move the process forward, the Arkansas Advocate reported May 15. In October 2024 the Corrections Board also approved a $16.5 million contract with Sacramento, California-based Vanir Construction Management to oversee the project, and picked Omaha, Nebraska-headquartered HDR and Cromwell Architects Engineers of Little Rock, Arkansas, for the design in April. For now, the state is conducting further environmental studies on the prison site, according to the project website. A cultural resource study is also likely to be undertaken to look for cultural and historic artifacts after members of the Chickamauga Nation recently warned that ancestors could be buried there, Axios reported last week. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
