Following the completion of the new Comal County Jail facility, the original jail is being reconfigured to house the entire sheriff’s department.
SpawGlass Contractors was hired by the county to carry out the project under a $12.4 million contract and is expected to be substantially complete by April 14, 2022.
The first change order amounts to $213,949 and will be taken out of the $592,140 owner contingency, according to county engineer Tom Hornseth.
Included in the change order is funding to create 20 fully enclosed offices to replace the 24 cubicles that were originally planned.
“It’s pretty extensive when you start adding offices to the space rather than just open spaces,” Hornseth said during the May 20 Commissioners Court meeting.
Costs associated with rerouting power for the radio control room were also included in the order and will allow the radio room to continue working throughout construction.
“I realize this is a big dollar amount to make specifically this one change, but I think in the long run it will be much better,” Commissioner Scott Haag said. “This allows a lot of privacy for the criminal investigations division, and they have a lot of people they interview and talk with, and they need some privacy.”
Commissioners also approved the 10th change order for the Comal County Landa/Annex Building renovation project, with $94,924 coming from owner contingency and $19,850 coming from contractor contingency.
Because the owner's contingency has been depleted by previous change orders, Hornseth said that the contract total had been amended from $10.8 million to $11.8 million.
“One of the things we tried to do initially with this annex revision was to keep as much existing space and furnishings and finishes as possible,” Hornseth said. “In hindsight, that was not a really good plan because we ended up replacing a lot of items once we got there and obviously caused a lot of change orders and additional cost.”
Included in the latest change order are adjustments to the ceiling in Courtroom 4, the addition of a projector and drop-down screens in Courtrooms 3 and 4, eliminating ledges in the elevator pit and resealing the building’s windows.
The annex project is anticipated to be completed July 12.
