FAYETTEVILLE -- Washington County officials are proceeding with plans to use federal covid-relief money on a jail project even as opponents gather signatures to stop the project through a public vote in November 2024.
A bid opening for the $20 million project is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the county courthouse.
"We plan to and are proceeding as if that project is completely green-lit," County Judge Patrick Deakins said Friday.
The Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition is gathering signatures on a pair of petitions seeking to block the two ordinances approved by the Quorum Court in December to pay for the expansion. One ordinance appropriated $10 million and the second appropriated $8.8 million.
The group is having petition-gathering events from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays at St. Paul's Church in Fayetteville, reaching out to church and civic groups and setting up tables at community events, according to Sarah Moore, executive director of the group. The deadline to submit the petitions to the Washington County clerk's office for verification is Feb. 21.
Moore said state law provides voters the right to challenge county government decisions through referendums. In a news release, the group said the Quorum Court's approval of the two spending measures goes against the wishes of the voters as expressed in the Nov. 8 election and may violate guidelines on the use of the federal money.
Voters in November rejected a $100 million expansion that would have been paid for by a temporary increase in the county's sales tax. A $28 million expansion for the county's Juvenile Justice Center was also rejected.
"Many voters say 'We already voted that down. Why are we still talking about it?'" Moore said of the reaction she's heard from people signing the petitions.
"The county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee has already identified a pretrial services program that would cost $600,000 a year and would open up 200-plus beds," Moore said. "That would alleviate the overcrowding in the jail within months at much less cost."
Sheriff Jay Cantrell said what he heard from voters in November was they were opposed to the tax increase, not the jail and juvenile justice projects.
"We were in a bad time in the summer and fall, with the price of everything from gasoline to eggs going up, and people were concerned about rising costs and inflation," Cantrell said. "With costs going up, people didn't want to have a new tax. That's what I've heard."
Cantrell said the number of people in the jail who have tested positive for covid has fluctuated throughout the pandemic, which began in March 2020, and the numbers continue to change daily. The need to isolate those who have tested positive and to quarantine anyone exposed to them creates housing issues throughout the facility. Federal and state laws also require the jail to keep certain categories of detainees separated. The jail has an operational capacity of about 580 detainees and the daily population had been over 800 on a number of days and over 700 regularly.
Deakins said the jail is clearly not designed to handle the covid pandemic, and he's comfortable the county can spend the federal American Rescue Plan Act money for measures directly related to improving health conditions there.
County Clerk Becky Lewallen said Arkansas law allows for referendum elections if petitioners can gather signatures of registered voters that total more than 15% of the number of votes cast for circuit clerk in the most recent general election. In the 2022 general election, Lewallen said, there were 52,613 votes cast for circuit clerk so the petitioners would need to have at least 7,892 valid signatures.
The petitions call for the ordinances to be put to a vote in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.
The expansion would add about 230 beds to the jail in medium-security additions, according to information presented to justices of the peace. There wouldn't be a full jail pod built in the proposal.
The largest single part of the plan is a 130-bed addition for women, adding 14,000 to 15,000 square feet at a cost of $5 million to $6 million. Another large expansion would add 100 beds for men in about 12,000 square feet for $4 million to $5 million.
Expanding the jail intake area would cost another $2.5 million to $3 million and expanding the medical space at the jail would cost $750,000 to $1 million.