Commissioners okay architects for new jail design

An architectural firm for a possible new jail facility was selected by the Gillespie County Commissioners’ Court following a week of special meetings.

County officials will now, with the help of Vanir Construction Management Inc., enter into contract negotiations with Wiginton Hooker Jeffry Architects, a Plano-based firm with branch offices in Dallas, Austin and Houston, and a local association with Stehling Klein Thomas Architects of Fredericksburg.

“Now we have to determine how far we want them to go in the process before the bond election (in November),” said Judge Mark Stroeher.

“We don’t want to spend a lot of money if it doesn’t pass the bond election, but, at the same time, we feel like we need to provide the public with enough information to see what we’d be dealing with going into the project,” Stroeher said.

Part of the contract negotiations will probably be to ask Wiginton Hooker Jeffry Architects to give the County of Gillespie prices for possibly proceeding in a couple of different ways, the judge added.

“The court will then take a look at those different proposals and see how much detail we’ll feel like we need and then we’ll decide how much money we’re going to spend on this project before a bond election and before we know if it’s going to pass,” Stroeher said.

No matter what, the architects will have to come up with the interior and room layouts, as well as the jail layouts and plumbing and related items.

“They’ll have to provide quite a bit of detail for us in order to get a good cost estimate, which we can then give to the public so they can be informed when it comes time for an election,” Stroeher said.

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Commissioners okay architects for new jail design