A worker at the site of the new Vernon County jail directs a crane operator who is placing pre-fabricated cells into position as Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman looks on Tuesday morning. Truckloads of cells were waiting just off site to wheel into place as the trucks ahead of them were unloaded, keeping the system moving. The final cells should be in place Wednesday. --Steve Moyer/Daily Mail

While county officials watched, cells that will one day house inmates were lowered on the the site of the new Vernon County jail.

The Vernon County Commission and Sheriff Ron Peckman met with the representatives of various construction companies at the construction trailer on the site, Tuesday morning. During the meeting the representatives for J.E. Dunn, construction managers, Ryan McConnell and Les Payne, stressed safety several times, especially when dealing with aerial projects.

"Avoid going below where the cells are being lifted," Payne said. "Let all your people know that that area is off-limits. Also when there is any work going on higher up don't have any work going on below. It's just common sense."

Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord said she was pleased with the rate of construction and thought J.E. Dunn was doing a good job of keeping contractors working well together and about stressing safety.

"They're very good about keeping the site cleaned up and getting everyone working together," McCord said. "They really stress safety, they bring it up at every meeting."

As the meeting was going on inside the construction trailer a crane was lifting pre-fabricated cells from tractor-trailers and placing them into their assigned spots. A row of truck drivers were waiting their turn to bring in loads of cells as they were needed.

"They had a couple of rows of cells in place by the time we were finished with the meeting," McCord said. "It's really coming together."

The project, which had lagged behind because of unseasonable weather early in the project, has regained the lost time and is even slightly ahead of schedule.

(Advertisement)

"They had some problems because of all the rain earlier," Peckman said. "Now they've made up that time and they're even a little bit ahead of schedule."

McCord said that one area J.E. Dunn has been doing a good job of managing are the inevitable change orders that crop up on a project the size of the new jail.

"We went over some change orders after the contractors left the meeting and all but a few were cost savings," McCord said. "We've saved about $200,000 on change orders so far."

The pace of construction remains fast with all concerned hoping that the roof will be on the structure before fall weather forces a slowdown.

"We'd like to get the roof on so they can keep going when it gets bad weather," Peckman said. "That way they can be working on the inside when it would be too bad to get anything done outside."