The Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail’s renovation plan hit a new hurdle Friday — the bids it received from contractors were over the budget.
“We opened bids on Friday afternoon, and the lowest bid exceeded the budget,” said Brian Pinkston, Charlottesville’s vice mayor. “The jail Board has work to do to right-size the project, to get it within budget.”
The Charlottesville City Council had planned to vote on allocating bond financing to pay for the renovations at Monday’s Council meeting. That vote was removed from the agenda Monday morning.
The renovation and expansion of the jail were originally estimated at $49 million in 2023. The cost would be split between Albemarle County, the City of Charlottesville, Nelson County and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Because the localities plan to pay for the project in part with bonds — a way for governments to borrow money from investors and repay it with interest — the total cost was expected to exceed $70 million by the time the debt is paid off.
It’s the highest tier option that was presented to the City for consideration — the option that included tearing down some parts of the jail and rebuilding, according to the reporting by The Daily Progress.
ACRJ Superintendent Martin Kumer would not say what the contractors’ bids were.
“We need more time to work with the contractor to finalize the scope of work and complete some value engineering to determine the final cost to build,” said Kumer.
The opponents of the jail renovation plan have been pushing back on the idea that it’s a wise way of spending the funds at all, local activists tell Charlottesville Tomorrow.
On one hand, the jail needs renovation — parts of it were built in 1975 and are outdated by modern jail and Americans with Disabilities Act standards, CBS19 News reported. The plan is also going to add more capacity and mental health resources.
On the other hand, opponents of the project argue that the amount of money allocated to the renovation could be better spent on community resources that would help divert people from the criminal justice system.
“We don’t need a bigger jail,” Harold Folley Jr., a senior organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center, a legal services provider, said in a news release put out by the People’s Coalition’s, which are local organizers. “What we need are investments in healthcare, housing, and mental health services.”
So far, the city has spent $4.5 million on design contractors, according to reporting by The Daily Progress. Activists told The Daily Progress that the money is worth losing if it means the project doesn’t move forward.
Despite the change to the agenda, the opponents to the renovation are still going to attend the City Council to protest the renovation, said Folley.
“This pause gives us the opportunity to get the word out because the people still don’t know that this expansion is happening,” he said.
Democracy Editor Jessie Higgins contributed to this report.
