LV firm offers low prison bid

CARSON CITY -- Sletten Construction Co. of Nevada is slated to receive the state contract to build a 1,000-inmate prison in Southern Nevada.

Construction could start by Nov. 1.

The Las Vegas-based company submitted the low bid of $78.98 million to the state Public Works Board this week for the project at Cold Creek, adjacent to the Indian Springs prison. Board manager Eric Raecke said if there are no protests, he will award the contract to Sletten.

The project should take about 18 months to complete. Raecke said the bids came in at the same order as in the first go-around. J.A. Jones of Las Vegas bid $81 million and Clark and Sullivan submitted a price of $83 million.

In the original bidding process, which called for a 1,500-inmate prison, the proposals from the companies were at least $15 million more than estimated.

There were protests filed following the first bids and the issue ended up in court with the bids being tossed out.

Raecke said he has $85 million earmarked for construction. In the bid, he said such things as fencing, a gym, warehouse and armory buildings were left out. He said some of these items, such as the fencing, can be added because the low bid is far below available funding.

This is the first phase of what eventually will be a 3,000-inmate prison. Raecke said he will ask the 1999 Legislature for $53 million to build the second phase and the 2001 Legislature for funding for the final 1,000-inmate project.

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