HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County commissioners awarded a contract Thursday for a $1.37 million security upgrade at the county prison.

The project includes the purchase and installation of additional surveillance cameras, monitors, video recording devices, door control devices and other items.

“It’s not just cameras,” Commissioner Bruce Erb said Thursday after the commissioners meeting. “It’s an all-encompassing security project.”

“This is going to be a huge undertaking,” Commissioner Amy Webster said.

Commissioners awarded the contract to Montgomery Technology Systems LLC of Greenville, Ala., which submitted the lower of two bids in response to the county’s latest advertisement. The company’s website indicates that it specializes in providing and installing electronic security equipment for all sizes of detention facilities.

Westmoreland Electrical Services LLC of Tarrs, near Greensburg, submitted the higher bid of $2.73 million.

County Administrator/Chief Clerk Nicole Hemminger said Thursday that the county’s 2017 bond issue has a cash balance of about $1.6 million, designated for the prison security project and repairs to the staircases in the county’s parking garage.

Hemminger said she estimates that about $1.2 to $1.3 million of that cash balance will be available for the prison’s security project. Unless the available amount is more or unless other money is earmarked, the county’s general fund may have to cover the remainder.

Prison Warden Abbie Tate said Thursday that she’s excited about the security project. The expanded surveillance coverage and longer retention of video recordings, she said, will be a safety benefit for the staff as well as the inmates.

“I am thankful to the county board of commissioners and the prison board for seeing the value and need for this project,” Tate said. “It’s been a long time coming and a lot of work for many parties.”

Thursday’s action to award a contract was based on the third set of bids submitted for the project.

Bids submitted in response to two previous advertisements were identified with shortcomings, prompting commissioners to reject them.

While county leaders have talked about building a new prison, and commissioned a study focusing on that goal, Erb said that’s not a reason to delay the security upgrade at the current facility. The plans for a new prison are going to take three or four years, he said.

Webster also said she wanted to improve security in the current prison.

“And what we’re doing now with this project, it could be moved to a new facility,” Webster said.

Commissioner Laura Burke, who wasn’t at Thursday’s meeting, also said in May that equipment being purchased for the prison’s security upgrade will be moveable.

Erb said Thursday that the prison study is not yet completed. The county, using a nearly $185,000 grant from the state, late last year commissioned TransSystems Corp. Consultants of Pennsylvania, the successor to L. Robert Kimball & Associates of Ebensburg, to undertake the study.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.