From kjrh.com:
Bid awarded, ground-breaking held for new Washington County jail
The Washington County Correctional Facilities Authority during a special meeting on Monday awarded a bid to Atlas General Contractors for the construction of the new Washington County Detention Facility and later broke ground on the building site.

The base bid from the Bixby-based company at $7.825 million was the lowest of eleven bids opened Feb. 23 for the construction the new 186-bed jail facility.

According to Architects in Partnership Ben Smith, project manager for the jail construction, with the awarded bid, the jail project will cost 40 percent less than originally estimated.

“Typically, we are lucky to get three bidders on these jail projects and as we know we had 11 and they were all in the same ball park,” Smith told Authority members. He said the high bid at $9.33 million was still $400,000 lower than projected.

Smith said AIP feels "very comfortable" with Atlas and its ability to handle the project.

"Personally, they have worked on three or four of my projects over the past few years. They've done two of our jails. So they know the animal. They know what they are getting into and we feel more than comfortable bringing these guys on to do the project."

After the awarding of the bid, the WCCFA moved the meeting to the future jail site west of downtown Bartlesville on the corner of Oak Avenue and Adams where the members joined with other leaders in the community to hold a ground-breaking ceremony for the detention center.

WCCFA member and Washington County Commissioner Linda Herdon told those gathered at the site, the jail authority is glad “the community is moving forward” with “a public safety issue” as the new jail. Washington County Sheriff Rick Silver later stepping up to the podium thanked those who supported the construction of the new detention facility.

“I just want to reiterate that this has been a long time coming,” said Silver. “We have needed this built for a long time and I don't think this would have come to fruition if we did not have the help of our community.”

“The only thing I can say is I hope they can build it faster than what they say its going to take,” he said, alluding to the bid package's projected jail construction time being 515 days.

For Immediate Release February 10, 2010	For More Information Contact: Linda D. Herndon, 9918-331-5119
PRESS RELEASE
Revenue Bond Paperwork Signed for New County Correctional Facilities (Bartlesville) – The process of building a new Washington County Correctional Facility is continuing on schedule after voters approved the half cent sales tax proposal in June, 2009. Paperwork was signed today at BancFirst in downtown Bartlesville to complete the process for Washington County to issue its Sales Tax Revenue Bonds in the amount of $15,940,000 for the construction of the new County Correctional Facilities. Pictured left to right are: Lewis Donnell, Project Construction Manager; County Sheriff Rick Silver, and Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners Linda D. Herndon. The county received a 3.03% average interest rate on these bonds, one of the lowest rates for Sales Tax Revenue bonds seen recently in the state, according to J. Brent Clark, Bond Counsel for the Washington County Correctional Facilities Authority. Bids for construction will be opened at 2 PM, February 23rd in the County Commissioner Chambers. Ground breaking for the new facility is planned for March 1st.