Barring further legal action, private enterprise will manage the Beaver County Jail beginning Oct. 30.

The county issued a letter Tuesday informing jail workers -- who are all Beaver County employees -- that Civigenics Inc. would be taking over jail operations. The Marlborough, Mass., company operates prisons nationwide, including the jail in Columbiana County, Ohio, which borders Beaver.

The announcement was not unexpected, since the county activated its contract with Civigenics June 22, and the contract gave the company 120 days to take over operations.

The move has been opposed in court, however, by the local unit of the Service Employees International Union, representing corrections officers at the jail.

In July, the union filed an injunction request asking Beaver County Court to halt the contract. No hearing date has been set but the county has filed a motion that county judges be recused from the case.

The issue has roots going back several years, as the county commissioners looked for cost-cutting moves. After touring the privately run Delaware County Jail in 2005, they put out a request for proposals.

Civigenics was the only company to submit a proposal -- one that promised to save about $1.9 million a year out of a $6.4 million annual jail budget. The county commissioners worked out a tentative contract while demanding similar savings from the union, which had a contract that expired at the end of 2005.

Negotiations were declared at an impasse Jan. 10, and the two sides went to arbitration hearings in April. The county made the June move to enact the contract while an arbitration award was still pending; the award was officially signed five days later, on June 27.

The union has argued that the arbitration award is binding, and has asked the court to enforce it; the county has argued that it is advisory only because it would force the commissioners to take legislative action to raise taxes.

The union, backed by activists opposed to privately run jails, has also argued that the county will be compromising safety by going with lower-paid and less-experienced jail workers. The county has argued that private guards have to meet the same requirements as public guards.

Civigenics, meanwhile, has hosted a job fair and has been interviewing candidates for jobs, including a number of current jail guards.