MOULTRIE — The projected total cost of Colquitt County’s jail renovation is coming in under what was originally expected, county officials said, saving the county and taxpayers about $2.2 million.

Colquitt County residents voted in November,to use SPLOST money to help fund the renovation and construction project, which has been in the planning stages for months.

In April, faced with the possibility of rising construction costs, the commissioners agreed to move forward with the bidding process for the project and, at the time, the estimated cost was approximately $26.6 million.

At the commission’s most recent meeting, Wilkes Evans, representing Allstate Construction, the company that the county has hired to manage the project, gave an update about the jail renovation and construction project.

“So we put it out to bid and I say, as a group, we made a good decision. We beat the summer K-12 work,” he said.

At the meeting in April, Evans had stressed the importance of getting the bid to market before Georgia school systems started their renovations for the year.

“Then, let everybody get busy renovating every K-12 school in South Georgia. Getting out ahead of that is important. It’s gonna save you some money,” he had told them at the time.

Evans said, in his new update, that they had gotten everything into the project and the Guaranteed Maximum Price was approximately $2.4 or $2.5 million.

He also went on to say that they had contacted 209 firms and believed that 82 of them were local and added, “Almost 77% of our awarded bidders are from within 50 miles, so we consider that local to the project.”

The new facility will house 252 inmates and will have a steel cell construction, which Evans explained were steel cells that were pre-manufactured.

County Administrator Chas Cannon said previously that he was told that the construction would last the county 50 years. He also said that the sheriff had mentioned that the design of the jail was built to be almost a deterrent for people wanting to come to jail.

In May, the commissioners had heard a proposal on how to pay for the jail renovation and construction project. Cannon said county staff had been working on a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that might allow the SPLOST money to go farther.

Linda Westberry, area specialist with USDA’s Rural Development, told the commission, at the same meeting, that the loan would be for 40 years at a 3% interest rate and to make the county eligible for the loan, they would get a revenue bond.

Then, County Attorney Lester Castellow told the commission that he had already spoken with a bond lawyer and a lawyer at the South Georgia Governmental Services authority, an agency that can issue a revenue bond.

“It is authorized to provide other governmental services and facilities, so we can go through them. Chas has already requested them to approve this,” Castellow said.

Tentatively, the commissioners are expected to approve the construction contract and bond financing at their next meeting, June 18.