County forgets to include cabling when building new jail

A new justice center is being built in Houston County, Minnesota without the cabling necessary for in-building wireless communication. According to reporting from the Spring Grove Herald, county commissioners railed against the consultant who apparently forgot to include an in-building distributed antenna system (DAS) in the construction plan. In a plight that is too familiar to many in the cabling industry, the system was tacked onto the contract at the last minute but rejected.

The $101,247 bid from Cellular Specialties Inc. was met with scorn from some of the commissioners. As The Herald's writer Craig Moorhead noted, Houston County Commission Chairman Jack Miller said, "We seem to be spending money on every whim and want, and enough is enough. There is a cheaper way to communicate when you're in that building." Smith suggested the use of handheld walkie-talkie style communication.

It sounds like Miller's biggest beef is with the consultant who overlooked the DAS: "We're paying half a million dollars, practically, to a consultant, and at the last minute we come up with this ..." he is quoted as saying.

Another commissioner's comments make me think that someday we'll hear about the $350,000 brownfield DAS installation at the Houston County, Minnesota Justice Center. "It wasn't budgeted," said commissioner Tom Bjerke. "If we delay this, we could always put it in later."

Or maybe not. After all, there are far more economical options than an in-building distributed antenna system.