El Paso County Commissioners Court: No contract reached in jail study

Even though MNK Architects was selected two months ago to perform a study on whether the Downtown Jail should be replaced or fixed, Commissioners Court has not reached an agreement with the company.

On June 1, Commissioners Court authorized county staff to begin negotiations with MNK Architects to come up with a price on the study.

As of Thursday, Commissioners Court has not signed a contract.

Commissioners discussed the topic Thursday in executive session.

Details were not revealed.

Commissioner Vince Perez said MNK Architects is charging the county a much higher price than what Commissioner Court had expected.

Commissioners had allocated $250,000 for the study, which will compare the cost of building a new jail and of remodeling the existing 30-year-old facility.

MNK is charging the county almost double, Perez said.

Perez said he did not know how long negotiations are going to take.

"The jail is the most expensive component to our budget, so we want to be sure that the study is going to give us all of the answers that we are looking for so that we can make the best decisions in the future on how to cut cost," Perez said.

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El Paso County Commissioners Court: No contract reached in jail study