Jail consultants to present costs, options for new facility
The consultants leading the planning process for a new Flathead County jail will present their findings to the county commissioners at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, in the commissioner chambers at the courthouse in Kalispell.
Spectrum Group of Billings and LCA Architects of Boise were hired to conduct a jail analysis as the commissioners contemplate the best way to accommodate future needs for an adult detention center that has been chronically overcrowded for decades.
The work includes a preliminary architectural report that looks at the cost estimate and operating cost analysis for a new jail on the county campus. The study also was to include a cost analysis of remodeling the existing jail to convert it into office and courtroom space.
Although no site off the county campus has been determined yet for a new jail, the consultants will give estimates using a generic 10-acre parcel of relatively flat land, according to county Grant Administrator Whitney Aschenwald.
The directive for the consultants was to conduct the analysis for a projected 260-bed jail facility.
The county is using a $40,000 state planning grant it received last year through the Community Development Block Grant program to pay for much of the jail analysis. The consultants’ contract, signed Feb. 5, is for $63,860, with an additional maximum of $8,000 for reimbursable expenses such as travel expenses and printing costs. That brings the potential total cost of the study to $71,860, Aschenwald said.
The remainder of the funding would come from the county budget, she added.
A temporary solution to jail overcrowding was put in place last year when the county spent $1.64 million to convert the second floor of the Justice Center into jail space.
The county’s five-year capital improvement plan includes $50 million in funding for a new jail.
The plan calls for spreading the expense of a new adult detention center over three years, with a $20 million earmark for fiscal year 2020 and $28.3 million in 2021. The capital plan anticipates asking voters to support a $37 million bond.
Features Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.