Since 2019, the Republican-led Woodbury County Board of Supervisors has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on a poorly planned and executed jail construction. Rather than using money meant to help communities survive and recover from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for its intended purpose, the Supervisors instead poured time and money into an unpopular boondoggle. Woodbury County residents were clear in their opposition to this project from the beginning to no avail. Using local news sources, the Woodbury Democrats have compiled the following timeline of events that has led to the unsuccessful completion of the jail that is now inaccessible by public transport and will require over a million dollars more in staffing per year.
Woodbury County Jail was built in 1987, it reached capacity shortly after. It had issues that stemmed from improper materials and poor decisions made by county leaders.
In 2019 after several years of making incremental improvements just under a budget that would require a public vote, it was discovered the problems were much worse with a price tag of $22 million to fix.
County leaders began discussing construction of a new jail estimated at $43 million. A joint city and county authority was created to oversee the project. By combining these two jurisdictions according to Iowa law referendums would only require a simple majority to raise property taxes.
March 2020 with 57% of the vote from 13.8% of registered voters the bond passes to raise property taxes to pay for the construction of the jail.
May 2021 Hausmann Construction of Lincoln, Nebraska is awarded the project now $58.4 million. Construction began in September with an estimated finished date of May 2023.
County leaders decide to cover the extra costs by using American Rescue Plan Act funds given by the federal government to help communities affected by Covid. This was met with protests by local activists and concerns voiced by union leaders. They used the funds anyway and construction costs continued to grow while supply chain issues pushed the completion date to September 2023.
In August, a few weeks before the anticipated completion date the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors had not had an update on the progress of the project since late 2022. The Woodbury Law Enforcement Authority had been advised by counsel to not discuss the completion date. Up until this point in time the LEC Authority did not make their meetings or minutes available to the public nor would they allow individuals on to the worksite unless they met the following criteria: 10 hours of OSHA training, Hausmann Construction training, and prior approval to visit the site by the LEC Authority, the Sheriff’s Department, and Hausmann Construction.
Walls collapsing from using improper bolts, missing fire dampers, a water leak, improperly installed elevator controls, missing seismic bracing, and HVAC problems have plagued the project throughout construction leading to delays.
After the first deadline was missed a new completion date of April 2024, then July, finally the LEC was declared substantially finished on August 16th. While declared substantially complete the contractors have until October 15 to complete their remaining work. The LEC Authority has recently been notified of huge problems in Boiler 1 with issues the manufacturer has never seen before.
As of May the construction contract totals $61.3 million. The total project is estimated at $70 million from added expenses, fees, and costs associated with the ongoing project delays - up from the initial project budget of $43 million. The total project estimate does not include lost budgeted revenue for housing federal inmates and ICE detainees or the added costs of 22 new employees to fully staff the jail going forward. 18 of those employees were needed after a construction revision was made to save $1 million. The annual budget for those county employees is $1.3 million.