Jail bid notice leaves public record gap

The $983,498 renovation moved forward with one bid after third legal notice reset project deadline

8:46 a.m. June 19, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

A third legal notice tied to Moore County’s jail renovation bid process appeared in the March 26 edition of the Moore County News, according to a tearsheet the newspaper provided to OLG Engineering’s Tim Little.

But the jail bid notice does not appear on TNPublicNotice.com, even though four other legal notices from that same March 26 edition do.

The notice is also not currently available on the Moore County News website. The site has since been redesigned and, as of today, shows legal notices only from June 11, 2026, to June 18, 2026.

Those March 26 notices posted to TNPublicNotice.com include two Notices to Creditors and two Notices of Substitute Trustee’s Sale.

Under Tennessee law, when a legal notice is required to run in a qualifying newspaper, the newspaper must also post the complete notice on its website and TNPublicNotice.com for the duration of the print run.

Little was asked for comment and confirmed he had been provided a tearsheet – a physical page or clipping directly from a publication – of the March 26 notice. He has not been provided a notarized affidavit of publication by the Moore County News.

The new information adds a fresh wrinkle to the timeline surrounding the $983,498 jail renovation project, which moved forward on June 15 as part of Moore County’s 2026-27 budget process.

What the third notice said

The third notice called for sealed bids for the food service renovation at the Metro Moore County Jail, located at 58 Elm St. in Lynchburg.

Bids were to be received by the Metro Moore County Jail until 1 p.m. CDT on April 14, then publicly opened and read aloud at the adjacent Annex at 462 Main St.

The notice also set a mandatory pre-bid meeting for 9 a.m. CST on Friday, April 3, at the project site on Elm Street. The notice said the site would not be available again before bids were due.

“Prospective bidders should report to the main entry for check-in prior,” the notice stated.

The March 26 notice followed earlier notices published March 12 and March 19 and reset the bid opening for April 14. The earlier notice listed a March 24 bid deadline and a March 13 mandatory pre-bid meeting.

One bid, nearly $1 million

The jail renovation became a point of discussion during Metro Council’s June 15 meeting after District 4 council member Peggy Sue Blackburn questioned the bid process and said the county should have sought more than one bid.

Sheriff Tyler Hatfield told council members the county worked with OLG Engineering, which drew the plans and handled the bid process, bid opening, and project management.

Hatfield said the project was publicly advertised and also posted on multiple construction websites. Two contractors attended a mandatory pre-bid meeting, he said, but Lee Adcock Construction was the only company to submit a bid. OLG's Little noted that a subcontractor also attended the pre-bid walk-through.

That left the county with one bid to consider.

The final amount budgeted was $983,498. That includes $833,498 for the construction bid and $150,000 for appliances and related equipment.

According to the bid description, the project includes renovation of the existing kitchen and intake areas, roof and ceiling repairs, and modifications to existing program space for female housing. The work also includes changes to the sprinkler, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems inside the existing jail.

Public record gap remains

The tearsheet indicates the March 26 jail bid notice ran in print. What remains unresolved is the rest of the publication record.

The Observer has not reviewed a notarized affidavit confirming publication of the March 26 notice. The notice was also not among the March 26 Moore County News legal notices available on TNPublicNotice.com.

That leaves an open question: whether the newspaper completed the full legal notice process required under Tennessee law, including publication on its own website and the statewide repository.

Budget vote moved project forward

Metro Council advanced the 2026-27 budget on first reading June 15 by a 13-2 vote. The jail renovation funding was included in that spending plan.

Arvis Bobo, Gerald Burnett, Douglas Carson, Amy Cashion, Marty Cashion, Bradley Dye, Dexter Golden, Greg Guinn, Jimmy Hammond, Houston Lindsey, Sunny Rae Moorehead, John Taylor, and Shane Taylor voted yes.

Robert Bracewell and Blackburn voted no. Blackburn said she could not support the measure because there was no second bid to review for the jail work.

The second reading of the budget is scheduled for Monday, June 29, with a public hearing at 6:20 p.m. followed by the special-called meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Building.