Dickinson County to Build New Jail, Renovate Courthouse

ABILENE, Kan. — Dickinson County officials are moving forward with a $15 million project that will include the construction of a new jail and the renovation of the current courthouse.

According to the county’s website, the existing jail was built in 1956 and currently sits on the second floor of the courthouse. The new jail would connect to the east side of the current courthouse, and a new courtroom and court offices would be constructed in that area of the second floor.

The project will be broken into two phases: Phase 1 of the project entails the construction of the new jail and sheriff’s office. Phase 2 includes the relocation of inmates and sheriff’s department staff from the old jail to the new one, and the subsequent renovation of the courthouse.

The county estimates that both phases would take roughly 24 and 30 months to complete.

According to the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle, Dickinson County Administrator Brad Homman told commissioners at a recent planning meeting took place with county staff and representatives from Goldberg Group Architects of St. Joseph, Mo., Loyd Builders of Ottawa and Piper Jaffray & Co., of Leawood, the financing company.

“Right now the target date on getting bid documents done is the first of January. They feel that is very realistic. Put it out for bid sometime in January and accept the bids hopefully by the end of January,” Homman said to the Reflector-Chronicle. “The rough completion date would be the fall of 2020 for everything.”

The Reflector-Chronicle reports that if bids are accepted by the first part of February 2019 that Phase 1, or construction of the new jail, could possibly begin sometime between the end of February and the early April.

A report from the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle contributed to this story.