Likely final payment made on Floyd County Law Enforcement Center and courthouse renovation project

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County made what is likely the final payment on the Floyd County Law Enforcement Center and courthouse remodeling project at its regular meeting Monday morning.

The project was approved by voters in 2018 and began construction in November 2019, but a few items had remained unfinished because one of the contractors had stopped working on the project.

Sweeper Metal Fabricators Corp. of Drumright, Oklahoma, had won a contract after bidding $1.27 million for jail detention equipment and electronic security systems, but as early as the fall of 2021 the company was well behind schedule and not responding to requests for information from the county or from The Samuels Group.

Supervisor Gloria Carr said Monday that the final items in the LEC jail cells had been completed and the final items for the holding cells outside the courtrooms on the third and fourth floors of the courthouse had been completed.

The Board of Supervisors approved paying the last of the retainage in the account to construction management company The Samuels Group, in the amount of $79,385.56.

That brings that company’s total – the amount it paid out to contractors for work and materials and the amount The Samuels Group charged to manage the project – to $16,085,857.40. The Samuels Group was paid about $300,000 of that.

One item still remains, Carr said, which is wiring a small heater in the entry space on the first floor that is no longer used for entry into the building. It needs heat because there are now fire suppression sprinklers in that area and the temperature can drop below freezing when it is cold enough outside.

Carr said she had talked with the owner of The Samuels Group, who had promised to get that last item done.

Carr said it was important to make the final payment now because most of the funds will come from the country’s federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, which must be spent before March 31.

The total ARPA dollars remaining was $74,674.37, so $4,711.19 of the final payment will come from the county’s general fund.

Carr said now that all the ARPA dollars have been spent the county will produce a report showing where all of the county’s more than $3 million in ARPA funds was spent.

More than $2 million of the total has gone toward the LEC and courthouse project.