Sticker shock may be bar to jail project

We’re guessing there were a lot of jaws dropping last week as Flathead folks learned the cost of building a new jail and parking garage next to the Flathead County Justice Center is an estimated $74 million if construction began in 2020.

That’s a staggering amount of money for a facility that would have no room to expand in the future. Consultants were asked by the county to do cost analyses for both on-site and off-site locations, so they penciled out projected costs for an off-site facility on a 10-acre parcel that would include not only a 59,000-square-foot jail but also the Sheriff’s Office. That proposition is expensive, too, at $66.8 million figuring a 2020 construction date. Leaving the Sheriff’s Office where it is would shave off $13 million, but it makes sense to pair law enforcement and the jail on the same spot.

Building a new jail at the county campus in downtown Kalispell makes no sense. Even though it would free up room in the existing jail that would be converted to court facilities, the county commissioners have to consider expansion needs of all departments in the coming decades.

To accommodate an on-site jail, the Courthouse West building that houses the Treasurer’s Office and Motor Vehicle Department would be removed and replaced elsewhere. It could be done, certainly, but some of the cohesiveness of the county campus would be lost.

And do we really want the mass of a three-story, 240-car parking garage plopped into the county campus?

There’s no easy answer about how to proceed. The county bought some time last year by converting the former County Attorney’s Office complex in the Justice Center into extra jail beds, but that was always meant to be a temporary fix. The jail census lately generally has not been at capacity, thanks to the addition, but nevertheless, the county needs to continue to explore its options.

So far the county has about $7 million saved for a new jail — about 10 percent of the projected cost of a new on-site jail — so it’s foolhardy to think enough could be saved for the entire project as construction costs continue to escalate. Building a new jail will only get more expensive as time goes on.

A bond issue for a new jail will be a tough sell. Taxpayers are already strapped with high property taxes for schools and other services.

Commissioner Phil Mitchell is correct when he said making big decisions such as where to build a new jail and how to pay for it “are hard.” That’s the commissioners’ job, though. We elected them to make decisions that are in the best interest of taxpayers and ensure public safety.