Brown County Commissioners opened sealed bids on Monday from two companies interested in locating their juvenile detention services in the Ron Jackson Unit II building that is now owned by Brown County.
After the closing of Ron Jackson Unit II facility, the Texas Department of Juvenile Justice transferred ownership of the facility (which includes several buildings which are located on approximately 37 acres) to Brown County. Currently, Brown County utilizes a small portion of the main building as their Juvenile Justice Center, which is a temporary holding facility for juvenile offenders. The remainder of the property is offered for lease.
Two companies have responded to the county’s request for bids to lease the facility by submitting their sealed bids which were opened at Monday’s meeting of the court.
One bid was submitted by Rite of Passage, Inc., a company based out of Nevada that operates private juvenile detention facilities in several states, according to County Judge Ray West. This bid contained a contingency regarding the company being awarded a contract with a state entity and commissioners said that they would reject it because of the contingency.
A second bid was submitted by G4S Youth Services, an international company operating privatized youth detention services whose corporate offices are located in Florida. Commissioners needed some clarifications of this bid, and no action was taken at Monday’s meeting.
Commissioners hope to secure a lease agreement with a company that will operate out of the facility in exchange for maintaining the grounds and buildings as well as making some much needed costly repairs on the facility according to West. The county’s Juvenile Detention Offices will still be housed at the Unit II main building.
In other matters on Monday’s agenda:
*No action was taken regarding a burn ban and no burn ban is currently in place for Brown County.
*Commissioners approved payment of necessary repairs on a generator at the Juvenile Justice Center.
*Approval was granted to District Clerk Jan Brown to purchase 2 extra large filing cabinets for $7000 (which includes delivery and set up), 3 scanners at a cost of $3100 and a computer for $700. According to Brown, the money for the purchase will be taken from the budgeted records preservation fund.
*Emil Luedecke, representing the Brown County Livestock Producers Association, came before the court to ask for increased subsidy to help pay for a county trapper. Commissioners took no action and asked for clarification of the expenses and salary of the county trapper from the AgriLife Extension service who is the trapper’s direct employer. The matter will most likely be considered on next week’s agenda after this information is provided.
