The Tarrant County commissioners have approved a $1.9 million architecture contract for the renovation of the county’s law enforcement training center.

The commissioners approved the contract 4-1 at their regular meeting Tuesday, with Commissioner Alisa Simmons voting against it.

The contract authorizes Fort Worth-based Komatsu Architecture to move forward with designing plans to renovate and expand the existing 20,000-square-foot law enforcement training center in southwest Fort Worth, to end with a newly redone space of more than 40,000 square feet.

The renovation option, which the commissioners approved in November, comes in at an estimated $19.5 million, not including a firing range that could be added at a separate location.

Simmons said at Tuesday’s meeting she does believe the existing center needs to be renovated and expanded, but that she has concerns about the amount of money that the county is paying for law enforcement, including not only for the center but also for training and for lawsuit settlements.

(The commissioners were slated to discuss in Tuesday’s executive session two lawsuits involving the jail, both alleging abuse or neglect at the hands of the jailers.)

Simmons also said she had concerns about the contract being funded with federal dollars leftover from the American Rescue Plan Act.

“We are now chipping away at these leftover funds to pay architects to draw plans for a law enforcement training center, and to me the word ‘disingenuous’ comes to mind,” Simmons said at the meeting.

The county had originally discussed building a whole new training center, which would’ve cost $60 million to $75 million, the Star-Telegram previously reported. The county then moved to consider other, less expensive options, and in November selected the least expensive of the three options presented by Komatsu.

Under the design contract approved Tuesday, Komatsu will design the renovation of the buildings at the Resource Connection on Circle Drive, and oversee the construction process. The vast majority of the $1.99 million contract is set aside for design development and construction drawings.