ALTAMONT, Tenn. - After almost five years of planning, designing and hand-wringing, the new $6.6 million, 98-bed jail in Grundy County is almost ready for prisoners.
The project is about 18 weeks behind, mostly because of weather and a cold start to the project in the winter of 2014, officials said.
Inmates will move in sometime within the next few weeks, Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum said Thursday. For security reasons, the move-in date won't be publicly announced.
Counting holding, detoxification and medical cells that are not in the main cell pods, the jail will contain 114 beds. The main population areas have 68 beds for men and 20 for women. The design allows the addition of more pods to accommodate growth.
Grundy's jail plan underwent modifications as a new county mayor and sheriff were elected during the planning stages, TWH Architects president Vance Travis said via email.
"[W]e were architects for the Stewart County Jail that is similar to Grundy in design and was constructed at about the same time as Grundy," Travis said.
"They too had a difficult site. The only difference was that Stewart County had the same mayor and sheriff during design and construction. Grundy County had an election between the design and construction phase," he said. "As a result, we had a new sheriff and mayor, as well as half of the commissioners were new, so we had to go through a quick learning curve with different thoughts and ideas."
Travis said Shrum offered a lot of good ideas on the design and function of the jail, but because the project was already underway, it was challenging to incorporate some of his suggestions. He also said County Mayor Michael Brady was helpful since he was a county commissioner during the design and bidding phases.
Although changes created a few headaches, the increase in overall costs was less than 5 percent, Travis said. That increase, he said, was "reasonable considering all of the weather delays and other challenges."
The main reason for the delay, Travis said, was the fact that when the project started in December 2014, the weather affected the project from day one.
"Winters are brutal in Altamont, which caused the site work to extend much longer than anticipated," he said. "As a result, the building construction itself was almost six months late coming out of the ground."
The jail's plan uses the same blueprints as jails built in the last decade in Bledsoe and Sequatchie counties. Shrum said Bledsoe and Sequatchie officials "were a huge help" with ideas.
"We were able to take out a lot of things they said they didn't use and we wouldn't use either, especially in the kitchen," Shrum said. "We won't use grease. We traded the grease vats out for two 12-gallon kettles."
That means inmates will eat more healthy meals and learn about healthier lifestyles.
More than half the changes enhanced functionality and bettered the project, Travis said.
When finished, "Grundy County will have a new and up to date facility that can be expanded and serve the citizens of Grundy County well into the future," Travis said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.