The Augusta Commission has approved almost $600,000 to fund more repairs at the almost-30-year-old Richmond County jail.
Commissioners this week agreed with the city's Central Services Department recommendation to spend $538,001 to replace the fire alarm system at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center. Another $58,287 was approved to fix parts of the center's roof.
The jail was constructed in 1997 but has undergone two expansions. The roof repairs will cover the original buildings and corridors.
The fire alarm project appears more challenging. In the jail's two expansions, hundreds of different pull-for-emergency fire alarms, emergency control devices and power supplies
have been installed throughout the facility.
The jail's last fire inspection identified "a large percentage of device failures and deficiencies" and an "incompatibility between fire alarm panels," according to the city's motion accepting the winning bid to undertake the project.
Marietta company Basesix Systems was not the lowest bidder, but showed more experience working with the Notifier brand of the jail's fire alarm system, Richmond County sheriff's Maj. Chester Huffman said in a July 17 memo to Andy Penick, the city's procurement department director.
Choosing a different fire alarm platform would present "potential technical and operational risks," Huffman said.
Augusta voters in May approved an $85 million jail renovation among projects identified in the newest version of the special-purpose local option sales tax. Plans would add 300 new inmate beds in the chronically overcrowded facility; upgrade the jail's kitchen; and refurbish inmate housing pods.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Jail inspection cited fire alarm deficiencies; Augusta OKs $538K fix
