Local News in Brief : Countywide : $935,855 Contract OKd for Jail’s First Phase

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $935,855 contract for coordination of construction for the first phase a planned 6,000-bed jail in Coal and Gypsum canyons in northeastern Orange County.

The contract with Fluor Technology Inc. was approved, 4 to 0, with Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder abstaining, as required by county law, because she had received more than $1,704 in donations in the past four years from the Irvine-based firm.

The approval came a week after the board awarded a $2.4-million contract for architectural and engineering services during the master planning of the jail, to be done by Henningson, Durham & Richardson Inc., with the Blurock Partnership.

The master plan for housing and support services for 2,500 inmates is due for completion next August. Plans for the additional inmates will be drawn up later.

A citizens’ group opposed to the jail is gathering signatures to put an initiative on the ballot next June that would block construction of the canyons jail. The initiative would force all future jails to be built in Santa Ana, the county seat and site of the existing main jail.

The $3.3 million authorized for jail planning comes from a special $6-million fund created by the board to pay for design, engineering, construction management and other work on the proposed jail.