$10 million Legal Services Center to replace mothballed jail
KINGMAN – Knocking down a mothballed Mohave County Jail will make way for a new Legal Services Center in downtown Kingman. The Board of Supervisors on Jan. 3 awarded the demolition project and a $500,000 contract to Cerritos, California-based Resource Environmental, Inc.
The President of the firm has been unavailable for comment, but a Wednesday meeting in Kingman is scheduled so company and county officials can coordinate the demise of the three-story structure that hasn’t held inmates for a dozen years. It won’t be by implosion.
“It’s not going to be blown up,” said Procurement Officer Morgan Michaels. He said heavy equipment will be used to break up the building and push debris into a parking lot to be hauled away.
County officials who’ve been asked have been unable to indicate how many tons of debris or how many truckloads will be involved, or where the material will be
disposed. Those are the kinds of things that will be discussed in the Wednesday planning session, according to Superior Court Administrator Kip Anderson.
MIchaels said night-time demolition is out of the question because of nearby homes. Daytime work no doubt will interfere with operation of the Law and Justice Center just across Pine Street.
“Unfortunately, it’s going to be noisy,” Anderson said. He said there are periods of the daytime when Court is not in session that may provide windows for the loudest destruction activity.
“I certainly want to suggest that they start as early as the can and do as much as they can before 8:00 or 8:30,” Anderson said. County Manager Sam Elters agreed that the lunch hour and close of business provide other times of opportunity to stage the loudest demolition activity, if possible.
“We will do all we can to coordinate with the windows of time that the Courts prefer,” Elters said. Elters said the Legal Services Center construction bid process will begin by Feb. with contract award planned in March, nicely aligning with end of demolition by April.
Elters said the construction of the center that will house the offices of the County Attorney, Public Defender, Legal Defender and other county legal personnel is estimated at $10 million. In today’s economic climate, capital projects bring supply chain and inflation concerns.
“There are uncertainties,” Elters said. “We’re doing everything we can to position ourselves to move ahead with the project and to take a proposal to the board that they can award a contract for.”
Elters said the timeline is not carved in stone, but that the goal is summertime construction start and completion in 2024.
Dave Hawkins
