SD's Project Prison Reset: What's next
'This is not final action,' task force member and Republican state lawmaker Jon Hansen said Tuesday. 'This is not anybody agreeing to a final plan. This is just getting these options on the table, show us what we can do within the constraints that we're setting forth, and hopefully we have something that we can agree upon, particularly as a legislature on two-thirds' vote.'
NOPE says yep to Project Prison Reset's site selection
Eventually, the plan is for the entire state legislature to learn about what the task force recommends. And, of course, what the House and Senate decide to do with that information will be their decision. JE Dunn Construction was a contractor for the project with a guaranteed maximum price of $825 million that failed to receive legislative approval in February, and they continue to work with the state. Now, options for consideration in the near future are top of mind.
'So our next meeting is in five weeks,' Lt. Gov. VenHuizen and task force chair said Tuesday. 'Do you think you can have that in five weeks?'
'We will have a version that, yes, we can talk through,' Vance McMillan, senior vice president of the justice group at JE Dunn, said in response Tuesday. 'To say that it's going to be complete, I can't give you that commitment 'cause there's too many options on the table. There will be some options that we can bring to the table, but to say that it would be the one, like I said, that solves all the problems, I can't give you that commitment. If I was nervous about anything, it's the bed count.'
The project that failed to get legislative approval in February was designed to last 100 years.
'To get to your dollar amount, we're going to have to look at all options,' McMillan said. 'So, we're going to come in with things that do not meet 100-year building facility. I'm just going to be honest with you.'
And, as McMillan says, as 100 becomes 50, pricier challenges will eventually be on the horizon.
'You're going to solve the problem now, but you're kicking a can that you're going to have another problem in 40 years, 50 years, and you're going to go, have to go build something again, and it's going to be twice as expensive then,' he said.
Project Prison Reset's task force has already endorsed replacing the aging South Dakota State Penitentiary. Their next meeting is scheduled for July 8.
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KENNEDY administration, first lady JACQUELINE KENNEDY created the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, made up of specialists in the field, and hired LORRAINE WAXMAN PEARCE as the first curator of the White House, according to the White House Historical Association. To learn more about the presidents and first ladies and how to draw them, check out How to Draw the Presidents and First Ladies.
