Nearly four months after putting construction of a jail on hold, Lucas County commissioners Tuesday approved a contract with a consultant to resume preliminary work on the project

The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to enter into a contract with a consultants’ group to prepare requests for the bidding process to contract for construction management, architectural, and engineering services.

“It’s time to restart the jail process,” Commissioner Pete Gerken said. “It really is time to restart it and figure out the funding and partnerships.”

The contract with Voorhis/​Robertson Justice Services Inc. of Aurora, Colo., which assists government officials in planning and constructing criminal justice and correctional facilities, will cost the county up to $68,540.

In October, about a week after they were given a feasibility study that projected a new jail would cost more than $142 million, the commissioners tabled the potential contract with Voorhis/​Robertson Justice Services Inc.

The project, the commissioners said, needed to be put on hold because the county was grappling with a $10.4 million deficit in the 2015 budget.

Part of the financial woes stemmed from charging changes put in practice by the city of Toledo in October, which now are costing the county $3.9 million annually.

The policy change, which was ordered by the late Mayor D. Michael Collins, calls for Toledo police to charge people they arrest with infractions of the Ohio Revised Code, rather than municipal code, so the county shoulders the burden of paying for those jail inmates.

Mr. Gerken said the public needs to know the jail project stalled because the county ran into fiscal problems, which were resolved by taking money from the county reserves. However, work on the project continued behind the scenes, he said.

The commissioners said the four-month hiatus allowed the county to regroup to examine the handling of inmates with mental illness and substance-abuse problems and consult with judges on risk-based assessment of inmates.

Commissioner Carol Contrada said the programs could affect the ultimate decisions on the number of beds and the size of a new jail, as well the overall cost for a new facility.

“We anticipate this will be important [in determining] the size and right sizing the jail,” she said. “I don’t know if we have enough statistics yet to be able to tweak the size recommendation.”

Tina Skeldon Wozniak, president of the commissioners, said the delay gave the county the opportunity to confer with judges and mental health professionals to hone programs and policies.

“I am actually glad we had the delay because so many things have happened in the criminal justice programming that has really helped us reconcile that the number of beds could change,” she said.

Contact Mark Reiter at: markreiter@theblade.com or 419-724-6199.

First Published February 25, 2015, 5:00 a.m.