Mower County officials and staff spent more than two hours reviewing 130 individual bids for 30 different bid packages for construction of the new Mower County Jail and Justice Center, and it may have been worth it.

“Generally speaking, they were all under budget,” said John Pristash, representative for Knutson Construction Services, Inc.

The Rochester firm was retained by the Mower County Board to be construction manager for the proposed new $36-million jail and justice center to be built in downtown Austin.

Craig Oscarson, county coordinator, “I don’t know how the commissioners will be able to turn any of them down after they hear the summary Tuesday.”

Pristash was a part of a team that included KKE Architects, Inc. representatives at the bid-opening last Wednesday afternoon.

Denise Bartels, senior office support specialist for the county coordinator, also participated in the marathon bid-opening witnessed by an over-flow crowd of contractor representatives in the commissioners’ meeting room. The crowd also spilled over into the lower level hallway.

Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen ruled some bids invalid, but, Oscarson said, the deadline for resubmitting those bids was extended.

Oscarson had the job of reading aloud the bidders’ identities and the bid amounts.

Although the summary prepared by Knutson Construction Services, Inc. was not made public last week, Oscarson predicted both the commissioners and taxpayers will like what they hear when Pristash delivers the summary Tuesday.

“They were very, very attractive,” he said.

Also last week, Steve’s Pizza closed its doors last week. Owners Steve and Angie Davis are moving their popular pizza restaurant to the former location of Granle’s Custom Framing and Art Gallery at the intersection of North Main Street and Fourth Avenue Northwest in downtown Austin.

The city of Austin bought the Steven’s Pizza business and real estate along with eight other privately-owned properties in a two-block area where the county plans to build a new, two-story, 128-bed jail and justice center.

When the Mower County Jail and Justice Center is opened for operation, that could bring an end to the county’s need to board out prisoners.

Presently, the county sends prisoners to the Mitchell County Jail at Osage, Iowa and Freeborn and Steele counties’ jails at Albert Lea and Owatonna, respectively.

Some critics of the Mower County Jail and Justice Center say building a new 128-bed jail is over-building, when the three jails Mower County uses to board prisoners are themselves half-full.

One of those jails is the Freeborn County Jail at Albert Lea, a 124-bed facility.

Like other counties, Freeborn County’s jail is, in part, dependent upon the district judges who do or do not sentence offenders to jail time.

If they continue to sentence offenders to suspended sentences or home detention, more jail beds will continue to be empty.

Since its own jail opened, the Freeborn County Commissioners, like the Mitchell County, Iowa Board of Supervisors, have entered into contracts with Mower County to house prisoners.

That, in turn, has developed a revenue stream for those counties.

The question is “Is Freeborn County worried that it will use an important revenue stream when Mower County opens its own new jail?”

Dr. Christopher Shoff, chairman of the Freeborn County Board, said “No,” but the commissioners are concerned.

“I wouldn’t say our board is worried, but, yes, there is a concern about how that could affect our jail operation,” Shoff said.

According to the Freeborn County Board chairman, Mower County’s neighbors are “exploring new avenues” when that happens.

The story is, of course, well-known to local government observers who the Mower County Commissioners twice rejected overtures to join other counties in creating a multi-county jail operation.

One such proposal would have had a jail built mid-way between Austin and Albert Lea near Hayward.

The idea was rejected by the Mower County Board.

Now, the Mower County Commissioners are not expected to reject the bid proposals they will hear Tuesday to build a new jail.

One observer said the bids received were as much as $3-million less than the construction manager and architect estimates.

Also attractive to the Mower County Commissioners, sources say local contractors were the apparent low-bidders for portions of the $36-million project.