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It’s back to square one for figuring out where a new Spokane County Jail will end up.
County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to renew the search for a site to build a new corrections facility, saying that the cost estimates – now over $265 million – to build a new complex near the courthouse in downtown Spokane are simply too high.
Meanwhile, projections show that it could cost about $45 million less to build a “horizontal” campus on rural land plus additional savings – possibly $40 million – for parking space and other site improvements.
“That’s an over $80 million difference – that’s significant enough for me to go back and look at other sites,” said board Chairman Todd Mielke on Tuesday.
The decision came after the sheriff and others – including the Spokane Valley City Council – advocated reopening the siting process in hopes of lowering the total cost in order to better ensure bonding approval by voters. It’s expected that the question will go on a countywide ballot in August of next year in order to get the facility built prior to 2013, when Geiger Corrections is forced to close by the Spokane International Airport board of directors.
While it may be cheaper to build the new jail away from downtown, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will cost any less to run it. It’s expected it will cost an additional $1.5 million per year to operate the jail away from the courts and other courthouse campus facilities.
Plans for a new jail have been in the works since it was announced three years ago that Geiger would lose its lease. Meanwhile, the downtown jail – build in 1986 -- has been overfilled for the past decade or so. It routinely holds about 675 inmates when it was designed to hold about 200 less.
However, while more cells are a given, a large component of the new jail facility will include a “community corrections” aspect that will be designed to try to curb recidivism and limit reoffenses. Commissioner Bonnie Mager said she wonders if that aspect will suffer if the jail is located somewhere other than downtown Spokane.
“We don’t want to lose some of that component,” she said, adding that she would like to have another meeting with the various stakeholders to see what the potential pros and cons could be.
Commissioner Mark Richard agreed, but said that he was also concerned about delaying the site selection process any longer, saying that once a final location has been picked it will then be time to begin the public-education campaign prior to the August 2010 election.
“That’s cutting it extremely thin,” he said.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said it would cost about $146 million (in present dollars) to add a second tower to the downtown site if capacity is eventually reached. However, it would only cost about $21 million to construct additional “pods” that would hold the same number of inmates in a rural setting.
The commissioners also agreed Tuesday to the $80,000 it will cost to go through another siting process, but added it will be worth it as they did not have accurate cost estimates when they chose the downtown location last year.
It’s possible, the commissioners said, that the downtown site could still be the best location for a new jail, regardless of price. Top-three locations that came forward before – which include county-owned land at Tschirley Road north of Euclid at Spokane Industrial Park -- will also be back in the mix.
Other Spokane Valley locations that were considered before include property owned by Spokane Transit Authority south of the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center and east of Havana Road and Washington State Department of Transportation land on Flora Road north of the Spokane River.
In other news, Knezovich announced yesterday that he and seven members of his command staff would forgo cost-of-living raises next year to help reduce the number of positions that might be cut due to tight county budget numbers. The total would save about $24,000.
The sheriff is looking to mitigate the loss of about 26 commissioned positions.
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By
Mike Huffman
