JPs set new vote over jail's future

But no consensus reached on 2 Franklin County tax bids

CHARLESTON -- The Franklin County Quorum Court has tentatively scheduled a special meeting for April 24 to consider whether to have residents vote on building a new county jail for $10 million or expanding the existing jail for half the price.

The Quorum Court scheduled the meeting after failing to come to an agreement at Thursday's meeting to call for an Aug. 8 special election for the passage of two sales taxes: one for one-eighth percent to raise more money to operate a larger jail, and one for three-eighths percent to generate money to expand the county's 43-year-old lockup.

The Quorum Court's agenda Thursday called for the consideration of three ordinances that would have levied each tax and established the special election date. The court voted to pass the first reading of the first ordinance but rejected it on the second reading. After the first ordinance failed, the court didn't vote on the other two ordinances.

As the two-hour discussion on the jail began Thursday, Sheriff Anthony Boen and his staff raised objections to adding on to the existing jail. He and his staff said the plans, which were sketched hastily in January, provided no room for storage; the kitchen was too small; and the refrigerators wouldn't support the larger jail.

He said the plans also didn't include the renovation of the sheriff's offices and wiped out parking for the sheriff's office. There also would be no room for future expansion.

"I can't see spending $5 million now and putting a Band-Aid on it," Boen said.

County Judge Rickey Bowman told Boen that no plans for the jail expansion were final and that accommodations could be made to satisfy his needs.

Quorum Court members Lacey Neissl and David Bowles Sr. said residents told them that they want a new jail, not an expansion of the existing jail.

Bowman said he couldn't support a new jail because the debt would take too long to pay off.

"I'm not comfortable asking the public to go into debt for 25 years," Bowman said.

He said expanding the existing county jail would resolve the jail standards violations that have existed in the Franklin County jail for years. The maximum $5 million cost of the expansion also would be paid off in about 10 years, he said.

The Quorum Court is running out of time to make a decision. The state Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee for the 5th Judicial Circuit has set and reset deadlines for the county to show it is taking some action to eliminate the chronic jail violations. Each time, county officials have assured the committee that they would take action but have failed to follow through.

Sterling Penix, state coordinator for the Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee, said the circuit's review committee decided in a teleconference Friday to meet with Boen and Bowman in Ozark on April 28, four days after the Quorum Court's special meeting, for an update on the county's improvement plans for the jail.

He said the committee will want a date for when the county will begin the jail construction process or the jail transition process.

The jail transition process would involve converting the jail into a 24-hour holding facility, after which an inmate would be transferred to another county to be housed and transported at Franklin County's expense.

If that happens, Bowman warned, the Quorum Court would have to make drastic changes to the jail budget to house the county's prisoners in another county. Officials estimated that it would cost more than $700,000 a year to hold its prisoners in another county's jail and to transport them to and from that jail for court in Franklin County.

In presentations made to the Quorum Court in February, Collierville, Tenn., jail builder SouthBuild LLC said it could add 84 beds to the county jail in a two-story addition and renovate the rest of the building for $4.9 million.

Fort Smith architectural firm Biggerstaff Minden and Associates proposed, in a plan similar to SouthBuild's, to build space for 91 beds for $3 million.

The firms were asked to draw up plans for expanding the county jail as an alternative to building a 92-bed jail on county-owned property in north Ozark. The Quorum Court called for the alternative after learning that a new jail would cost nearly $9 million.

If the proposed three-eighths percent sales tax passed, it would generate about $650,000 a year. At that rate, Quorum Court members learned in January, it would take 25 years to pay off the construction debt.

State Desk on 04/15/2017

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