The Jasper County Board of Supervisors will be opening bids in February on construction of a Law Enforcement Training Facility at the old Jasper County Animal Rescue League Building. Tuesday, the County Board of Supervisors gave final approval for the project designed by BBS Architects and Engineers of Des Moines. Jasper County Maintenance Director Adams Sparks tells KRLS News it will go out to bid early in the new year.

“January 8th is when it will be issued for bid. After that we will have a pre-bid meeting and a walk-through. Then we will have a bid opening either February 10th or February 17th.”

BBS’s cost estimate was just under $625,000. But the Board of Supervisors decided to take parking lot lights and a fire alarm system with a generator out of the plans, reducing the estimated cost to just under $590,000. That’s still about $50,000 more than the Jasper County Board of Supervisors budgeted for the project.

The county-owned building and property at 5411 Liberty Avenue, just southeast of Newton, has been vacant since the Jasper County Animal Rescue League closed on June 30th, 2020. The closure was due to a lack of funding, partially related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the building’s overcrowded and deteriorating conditions.