Jail revamp remains on schedule

Construction at the McLeod County Jail has been under way for 2 1/2 weeks and remains on schedule, according to Jim Werket of Honeywell’s automation and control solutions group.

The project will include remodeling the jail’s security control room, updating security electronics, replacing air vents with more secure models, replacing intercoms, updating the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, and replacing circular lenses on lights, property storage cages, and electrical outlet plates with more secure versions.

Buysee Roofing of St. Cloud will also soon begin re-roofing the County Jail. County Building Services Supervisor Wayne Rosenfeld said workers will remove rocks and an existing fence around a now-defunct rooftop recreation area.

The new roof, to be installed over the course of approximately two weeks, will have a greater pitch than the current roof.

Most jail inmates have been boarded out to Carver County, according to Jail Administrator Capt. Dennis Johnson, with one at Meeker County and another in Sibley County. New inmates are being booked at the jail, then sent to Carver County during the 60-day course of the construction project.

Werket said Honeywell is shooting for early October as the date when inmates can move back. Remodeling of the security control center “went like clockwork,” he said, but a vendor sent the wrong size ventilation diffusers. The glitch is not expected to affect the October completion date.

Items including new property cages and light lenses are being custom fabricated in Glencoe and Hutchinson. “We always try to source components as close to home as possible,” Werket said.

He added Quade Electric and Foster Mechanical have “done a wonderful job” helping with the jail project and an energy-saving project at the county’s North Complex and Health and Social Services building. “Our hats are off to all the local trades,” Werket said.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)