Volusia To Vote On Construction Contract For New VCSO Evidence Center

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Volusia County, FL - At its Tuesday meeting, the Volusia County Council will vote on a measure to establish a guaranteed maximum price for the construction of a new Sheriff's Office evidence storage facility. The site for the new evidence facility will be 10 acres off of Tiger Bay Rd., near the Sheriff’s Office Training Facility. The plans for the new evidence center have been in the works for several years since the current evidence center is aging and out-of-date. Construction of the new facility has not yet begun, but the latest County records show that the planned evidence center will be 29,635 square feet and will take about 13 months to construct. Construction is expected to begin March 1 of this year and be completed in April of next year. The vote on Tuesday would establish a guaranteed maximum price of $11,794,504 for the construction contract with Ajax Building Corporation in order to build the evidence center if the measure is approved. The total cost of the project is $13.5 million. That includes the $11,794,504 for construction, $355,496 for furniture (to be approved by the Council at later date), and $1,350,000 that has already been spent for permits and other fees. $5 million of the total cost of the project will come out of the County’s general fund, and the remainder of that money is supposed to come out of the Municipal Service District (MSD) fund, but County staff says there is only about $1.5 million in MSD reserves, so a $7 million loan is necessary in order to move the project along. The County Council already approved the loan at its December 7 meeting. For earlier reporting on the loan approval, click here. Another item on the County's agenda for Tuesday's meeting, the first Tuesday morning meeting of the  County Council, is a presentation and a summary of impact fees collected by the County since the fiscal year 2012-2013. Impact fees are used to pay for capital improvements needed to address impacts from new residential and non-residential development. The primary focus of Tuesday's presentation will be a breakdown of how impact fees for the County's roadways are being used. According to County records, Volusia has collected more than $14.7 million in road impact fees since the fiscal year 2012-2013, and more than $13.4 million of those fees have gone toward paying a bond debt for the expansion of the County's thoroughfare road network. Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2018.