Marvin Repinski did not have the last word at Wednesday’s special meeting to discuss once again the proposed Mower County Jail and Justice Center.

“Are you willing to sign a development agreement for the Robbins building?” Repinski asked the Mower County commissioners.

“You ain’t going to get that from me,” responded Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner.

The meeting adjourned at that point, leaving everyone to assess the consequences of the county board’s actions.

By a unanimous 5-0 vote, the commissioners voted to authorize bids be taken for a new Mower County Jail and Justice Center in downtown Austin.

Tucker, chairman of the county board’s building committee, made the motion to accept a cost estimate of $36 million for a new two-story, 128-bed jail and justice center. Dave Tollefson, 5th District county commissioner, seconded it.

The commissioners “ayes” registered loudly.

KKE Architects Inc. and Knutson Construction Services, construction manager for the project, will now prepare the necessary documents and bids should be ready by January or February 2009.

They will be due from contractors on or before March 16, 2009 and construction can begin.

Sometime yet this year, the county will bond for $10 million to cover initial costs of the largest capital improvement project in modern county history. Another $20 million will be bonded in 2009 and the rest — monies for a geothermal heating project for the new facilities — in 2010.

The county hopes to reduce the actual bonding total with monies from its reserves, wind energy profits and other sources.

The commissioners set a ceiling of $27-million on the bond monies they were willing to raise for the project, but that was before costs escalated this summer from $30- to $32- to $36-million.

En route to last week’s announcement the project had increased yet again, the architects and construction manager retained by the county said between 35 and 40 changes had been made to the schematic design and $1.2-million pared from the project.

Still, it went up and now commissioners hope contractors hungry for work next year will drive the cost down.

“We also hope the bids will come in lower than expected and that we can save money there,” said Tollefson, who also serves on the building committee with Tucker.

Tollefson won election to the county board in 2006 after pledging to fight to locate the jail and justice center in downtown Austin and do what he could to hold down costs.

He was successful in helping convince the five member board to change their minds about locating the facilities on a green field site south of the Austin Municipal Airport and instead put them on two blocks of property between Fourth and Second avenues and Second and First streets NE.

On Wednesday, Tollefson continued to fight to reduce the costs of the facilities.

His target: $3.7-million set aside for “contingencies” by the architects and construction manager.

“If the money is out there, somebody is going to spend it,” Tollefson said.

Richard P. Cummings, 1st District county commissioner and chairman of the county board, had his hands full keeping the meeting moving forward and helping citizens stay on track.

Repinski had to be gaveled into silence early in the meeting after a heated exchange with commissioners, that included “name calling,” according to Cummings.

Donna Welsh, county finance director, and county coordinator Craig Oscarson were present to answer the commissioners’ questions about bonding issues.

Also present were KKE’s Randy Lindermann and Mike Clark and construction manager Dave Foley.

Emotions ran high as the controversial issue reached a milestone of agreement by the commissioners.

For the last seven years, jail over-crowding and court security have been discussed and debated over and over.

Not until the city of Austin agreed to give the county $1.5-million and make two blocks of downtown land “pad ready” for a new jail and justice center was there any real progress toward a solution.

That came late last year and set in motion more meetings and more discussion and debate; prominent among the most recent topics is the future of the highly-coveted Robbins block of property east of the government center/courthouse and across First Street Northeast.

The county plans to acquire the block, tear down the 27,000-square foot Robbins Furniture and Design Galley building and build a geothermal field and/or parking lot.

As Wednesday’s meeting was about to end, Repinski, a retired Methodist minister, implored the commissioners to consider developing the block as the Austin Main Street Project has encouraged.

Tucker’s remarks closed the door on that possibility.

Also speaking at length Wednesday was Eugene Novak, who said citizens were getting “riled up” over the delays and steadily escalating costs of the jail and justice center facilities.

Also speaking out was Sandy Forstner, executive director of the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Mr. Novak makes a reasonable point,” Forstner said after the citizen railed at the commissioners for inaction and delay.

But Forstner didn’t stop with the jail and justice center.

“It’s important to make a good decision,” he told the commissioners. “Making adjustments now will save us a lot of money later.”

According to Forstner, after the new facilities are built and opened for use, there will be operations and maintenance expenses, staffing, the future of the health and human services department, the law enforcement center renovation and expansion and other expenses.

“Take a serious look at those issues now” was Forstner’s advice, and it came with a warning: “You’re 17 percent over budget already.”