BROOKINGS – Brookings County commissioners publicly expressed their frustrations with architect firm Boarman Kroos Vogal (BKV) Group after a lengthy executive session last week.

No action was taken on the agreement between the county and the architect group that has been in place since May 2017, but county commissioners told architect Bruce Schwartzman that they expect more from the company.

The firm has been handling the Brookings County Detention Center expansion project, which had an estimated price tag last fall of $12.6 million. The on-site plan would both construct a major addition and remodel and repurpose some existing space at the detention center and sheriff’s office.

Most recently, architects appeared before the Brookings Historic Preservation Commission at its Feb. 8 meeting, where they were scheduled for discussion and official comment on an 11.1 review case report for the proposed Brookings County Jail Expansion. If approved, it could have then gone on for review and a decision from the State Historic Preservation Office.

But county commissioners have been frustrated with what they described as a lack of preparation, a sluggish schedule and a lack of county oversight.

This was apparent at the Brookings Historic Preservation meeting in early February. Faced with inadequate information on the materials to be used, more substantial design directions and better detailing of alterative options considered, the board had tabled any action.

The onus is now on the county and architect to provide that information and again approach the Historic Preservation Committee. 

This wasn’t lost on county commissioners, who expressed their concern with a lack of progress in producing designs for the jail expansion project.

“Somehow or other, we need to have a design that we can look at as a commission and say this is what we want. Now, it might be three or four designs that you present to us, and we might pick out parts of each of them,” Commissioner Mike Bartley said.

County Commission Chairwoman Lee Ann Pierce agreed.

“It concerns me that we’re at this stage and we don’t have a final exterior design,” she said. “I don’t think the renderings are going to meet the needs of Brookings County.”

She added that she has wanted the county commissioners to have the chance to review materials to be submitted to other entities. That hasn’t been the case, and some submitted documents have contained errors.

“For materials to be sent to Historic Preservation or the South Dakota Historic Preservation Office or the Board of Adjustments that we have not had an opportunity to review because they were prepared too late for us to look at and then they contained errors – that just can’t happen again,” Pierce said.

“The jail expansion committee should read everything, and this commission should have an opportunity to look at the materials and say, yes, that’s what we want or no, that isn’t what we want,” she said.

Commissioners Ryan Krogman and Larry Jensen were more general in their critiques.

“Frustrated. That’s the word in my mind here. I’m frustrated on performance and how we’ve looked to the public in this whole process. Design is your job; it’s not ours,” Krogman said. “But what frustrates me is when we went in front of those two boards to get our variance, we were not prepared. You were not prepared, and it showed. I was disappointed. I was not happy with where we were at.”

Jensen said that work needs to be done to address all the concerns of the commissioners, the Historical Preservation Commission and the public.

“I think we can get there. Improve our timelines so we know what’s coming. Make sure we have our material ready and move forward. We’ve done a lot of work already. I’d hate to lose all that,” Jensen said.

Schwartzman said the process the project has been through hasn’t been typical to other projects, and that’s contributed to problems. Creating and following a work plan and schedule and improving communication with the county should help the situation.

“It’s clear from some of the discussions that there was a bit of miscommunication – clearly some on our side as well. I would value the opportunity to put together a work plan, a schedule to really put things back on track to make sure we as a group are working together to nail all the issues appropriately and timely,” he said.

BKV is now working on establishing a timeline with the jail expansion committee, with Pierce confirming in a later interview that nothing else pertaining to the jail expansion is yet scheduled.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.