VAN BUREN -- Crawford County officials came about 18 months closer to solving a 26-year jail overcrowding problem Friday when they broke ground on a new county jail.
The jail, designed to hold 260 inmates and the sheriff's office, is under contract to be built for $20,521,891, according to county figures. The site is on the edge of Van Buren on U.S. 64. The current jail is in downtown Van Buren.
About 150 past and present state, county and local officials, along with several residents, attended the groundbreaking ceremony on the 10-acre site of the new jail that County Judge John Hall said will provide work for several area companies.
"When you get right down to it, of the 24 contracts we let [for the jail construction], 15 have been local," he said.
He said Crawford and Sebastian county companies were awarded contracts totaling about $6 million, and $3 million in contracts went to companies in other parts of Arkansas.
Construction of the building will take about 18 months, Hall said, with completion about September 2016. He said he expected the inmates and sheriff's office to move into the jail about Nov. 1, 2016.
Hall praised the Quorum Court for having the courage to ask residents to approve two sales taxes to fund the construction and operation of the jail. Quorum courts tried but failed three times over the past several years to win voter approval for sales taxes to fund new jail construction.
Voters narrowly passed two sales taxes in May 2014 for the jail project. One ballot question for a 0.5 percent sales tax passed by a margin of 4,199 to 3,974, according to election records. That tax will sunset when it pays off bonds that were sold to raise the construction money.
The second ballot question, for a permanent 0.25 percent sales tax to provide operating funds for the new jail, passed 4,279 to 3,981.
The current jail opened in 1989 and initially was built to hold 64 inmates. Crawford County quickly outgrew the jail, and inmate populations sometimes exceeded 100.
The county jail, expanded to hold 88 prisoners, failed inspections -- and judges issued orders barring the sheriff from exceeding the jail's capacity. But the county continued to lock up more people than it was designed to hold.
Sheriff Ron Brown joked during Friday's ceremony that Circuit Judge Mike Medlock told him even if the jail violated his court order, he couldn't put the sheriff in jail because there was no room for him.
Hall said mayors and police chiefs of the county will be glad for the new jail and the prospect of taking people off the streets who the sheriff now has to set free because of the lack of jail space.
NW News on 05/02/2015