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Foy wins Hutchinson s animal shelter contractBy Chris Green_The Hutchinson News cgreen@hutch.news. comInmates apparently won’t be doing the work when the city of Hutchinson’s new animal shelter is built later this year.In a departure from plans to use mostly Hutchinson Correctional Facility inmate labor to save money the Hutchinson City Council on Tuesday decided to award the contract for the construction of the basic $633,000 shelter to Foy Construction of Hutchinson.At last Tuesday’s bid opening for the project, the city did not receive enough material contractor bids to build the entire shelter with inmate labor.But rather than seek additional bids, the council decided it liked the bid received from Foy, even though it was $48,000 more than the estimated cost for construction with inmate labor.“I never dreamed we would get a contractor to bid this low,” council member Brad Dillon said.The chief concern of animal care advocates at Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t who would build the shelter. It was funding the construction of an $83,400 add-on to the shelter that would allow the building to house up to 80 dogs rather than just 48.At a meeting last week, Hutchinson’s Animal Care Advisory Board had recommended seeking additional bids from material contractors in hopes of saving enough through using inmate labor to build the shelter addition.But council members said it was time to proceed with the shelter. Soliciting additional bids could delay the project, scheduled to be completed by Dec. 31, three to five weeks, and architect Dan Hall of BG Consultants said there was no guarantee enough bids would come in to allow the use of inmate labor anyway“It’s time to get this thing done and over with,” council member Ron Sellers said.Despite that, animal care advocates asked the city to do whatever it could to make sure the addition to the shelter is built because of the possibility that a basic shelter could be filled to capacity once it opens.“I want this kennel built,” said animal care board member Ruth Ann Spitzer, who urged the council to look at having the general contractor use inmates to help build the shelter addition under budget for the good of the communitySellers first moved that the city award Foy the contract for both the shelter and addition, but that motion failed for lack of a second.Council members approved a second motion awarding the $633,000 bid for building the basic shelter to Foy Construction on a 4-1 vote, with Sellers voting against it.Mayor Dean Brigman said he was hopeful that an agreement could be worked out that would allow for the contractor to build the shelter addition with the help of inmate labor.But it was unclear from Tuesday’s meeting whether the addition actually would be built and to what extent inmate labor would be used, if it would be used at all.Director of Planning and Development Nancy Scott - who joined City Manager John Deardoff in recommending the awarding of the contract to Foy Construction - said that the city still appreciated the efforts of HCF Warden Louis Bruce even though it wouldn’t be depending on inmate labor for the project.The prison donated the land south of Avenue G and Severance that the shelter will be built on.“We would not be as far ahead if it weren’t for the warden,” Scott said. “I don’t want to overlook all they have done for us.”
Newspaper Details
Hutchinson News
Hutchinson, Kansas, US
Wed, Apr 20, 2005
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Hutchinson P.
KS, USA 17 Jan 2023
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