News
Actually, Block Walls Do A New Jail Make
By Jonathan Ment , Freeman staff 08/05/2003
While the much-debated $71.8 million jail project has its share of
detractors on financial grounds and questions of need, it is giving
back to the local economy. In addition to earnings of the roughly 170
people currently employed at the site, and the gas, food and other
purchases they make here, the center is relying on local raw
materials and manufactured parts, contributing further to the
employment picture.
Ralph Acampora, vice president and chief operating officer at
Kingston Block & Masonry Supply, said about 350,000 blocks are
going into the project. Of course, there's also steel, bricks and
precast concrete components, including jail-cell modules purchased
elsewhere.
Acampora's blocks consist of about expanded shale, or lightweight
aggregate as it's known to those who read the sign at Saugerties'
Northeast Solite, where its made. Blocks made with this material
weigh about 40 percent less than traditional blocks and cost just a
quarter or so more. Custom split-face blocks will also be used on the
building's exterior. Those cost a little more, he said.
The material is picked up 22 tons at a time, said Acampora. Each
truckload yields about 3,000 blocks and accounts for about 40 percent
of the blocks' raw materials cost.
Barbara Budik, spokeswoman for Northeast Solite Corp., said the
blockmaker became a certified dealer by the Expanded Shale, Clay and
Slate Institute, a requirement for companies bidding on many state
projects.
The blocks offer twice the fire protection plus better heat and sound
insulating capability, she said. Because they're lighter, they're
easier to handle and go up more quickly, requiring less manpower,
said Acampora.
Other materials in the blocks include "screening," a
natural stone mined in Port Ewen by Callanan Industries; and cement.
Other stone products used at the jail site are also supplied by
Callanan.
Rigid insulation going into the project is made by Hunter Panels,
based at TechCity.
Several of these company's are participants in the state's Empire
Zone program, brought on board by town and county agencies, said
Budik.
Jail Project Coordinator Brian Cunningham, an Ulster County Buildings
and Grounds department employee, said it's difficult to track
specific costs because many expenses are subcontracted through
Christa Construction. He said roughly 45 percent of the project's
hard costs are materials. Somewhere near $9 million is soft costs,
for land, legal work, testing, design and other activities.
There's a project labor agreement for the jail site that requires
many of those employed be union labor. Many working for firms in
neighboring counties such as Orange County Mason Builders, live
locally. John Mullen & Sons, the firm handling site preparation
and foundations, is based in Saugerties.
The jail might seem larger than necessary to those who haven't
forecast needs out over the coming 25 years or more. When it opens it
will accommodate up to 498 beds, potentially 200 more inmates than
the highest daily occupancy for both the existing jail and
"boardouts," inmates Ulster County pays neighboring
counties to house. Expansion has been planned for, with the jail as
designed capable of holding near 800 inmates if needed.
Cunningham said location of the new jail will also save the county
money in other ways. "With jails, your business is
transportation," he said referring to the moving of inmates back
and forth between court appearances. "This site is the closest
of all those considered," he said. Its larger capacity should
mean fewer inmates will be housed elsewhere, cutting down on staffing
and other expenses involved in shuttling them around.
At 277,000 square feet, the center will house the 134,253-square-foot
jail, support services and administration, and the Ulster County
Sheriff's Office, which will no longer need to rent space on Schwenk
Drive. Completion is scheduled for September 2004.
The current jail, on Golden Hill Drive, was completed in 1973 and has
281 beds.
©Daily Freeman 2004 |
