By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

Crunch time for Fayette's recently activated Public Facilities Authority probably will come some time in June, county attorney Bill McNally told the group.

Jim Mallett and Associates, the firm managing Fayette's $60 million jail and courthouse construction project, currently is working on a preliminary design, McNally told the authority during its organizational meeting last week. The preliminary design is expected to be finished in mid-May, he said.

County commissioners will then have 30 days to review the first draft and make comments before the final design is begun.

“At that time you're getting into your heavy duty [costs],” McNally said, adding that it will be important for the authority to have financing in place before costs start to weigh too heavily on the county's operating funds.

When the authority has issued bonds to finance the project, the county's general fund will be reimbursed for its costs thus far, which include the purchase of more than 20 acres to expand the downtown Fayetteville site for the project, along with consultants' fees and the preliminary design work.

Actual construction on the project is about a year away, said county Commissioner Greg Dunn, the commission's official spokesman for the project.

In fact, the final design itself normally takes a year or more, he said, “but we're going to condense the design phase a little bit and [start of construction] will probably be early next year.”

Dunn said he is hoping when all the numbers are crunched, cost of the project will come in “just a little bit below” the current $60 million estimate.

As the financing agency, the facilities authority actually will own the jail, courthouse and sheriff's office until the bonds are paid off, in 30 years or so, McNally said.

The group will schedule monthly meetings, and may even meet more often than that in its first year of activity, but can cancel its meetings anytime there is no business to conduct, he said.