2 add-on jail plans get a look

OZARK — Franklin County officials are moving away from plans to build a new jail and instead are studying ways to expand the current lockup.

The Quorum Court heard presentations last week from two potential construction managers to build a two-story addition to the county jail on the Ozark town square. The addition would include 91 beds or 84 beds, depending on the plan the Quorum Court decides to accept.

James Langford with SouthBuild LLC., a jail building company from Collierville, Tenn., told Quorum Court members that the 84-bed plan would cost a maximum of nearly $4.9 million.

Architect Jo Minden with Biggerstaff Minden and Associates of Fort Smith presented the 91-bed plan and said it would cost $3 million to build.

In both plans, the current jail and sheriff’s office would undergo renovation. Support functions such as kitchen, laundry, booking and housing for Act 309 inmates would be built into what is now the jailcell section. The sheriff’s office would receive other upgrades such as new plumbing.

The proposals substitute earlier plans to build

a new 90-bed jail on county-owned property on Airport Road near Interstate 40 at the city’s north end.

“This is a solution that works, given your budget constraints,” Langford told Quorum Court members at Thursday’s meeting.

Franklin County has been in violation of state jail standards for years. The Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee for the 5th Judicial Circuit, which also includes Johnson and Pope counties, has threatened to close down the jail if the county does not bring it into compliance.

The jail, which is 43 years old, was designed for 34 inmates and is overcrowded, understaffed and outdated. The review committee in August gave the Quorum Court until April 16 to provide the committee with a construction start date, plans to transition to a 24-hour holding facility or “other sufficient act.”

The county would ask voters for a tax increase to help pay for the jail project.

County Judge Rickey Bowman said that if Quorum Court members vote in March to hold an election, the election probably would be held in June.

Sterling Penix, state coordinator for the Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee, told the Quorum Court that setting an election date before the April 16 deadline could prompt the review committee to delay action until the election is held.

The Quorum Court passed a resolution in August saying it intended to hold its jail sales tax election before the end of March.

Bowman said the Quorum Court balked last month over the estimated $8.8 million price tag of constructing a new lockup and told Minden and SouthBuild to draw up the jail expansion plan as an alternative. He said, though, that some Quorum Court members inquired after Thursday’s meeting whether the jail on Airport Road was still a possibility.

Adding on tothe current jail would wipe out the sheriff’s parking, put inmate recreation yards facing Main Street and could negate the possibility of future expansion.

The justices of the peace did not make a decision Thursday on whether to put the matter before voters because there were still several unresolved issues to building the jail improvements.

Quorum Court members told Bowman they needed to have the construction costs nailed down and figure out how many new jail staff members would be needed, whether the city of Ozark would help the county find more parking and whether cities in the county would surrender their share of tax money the county wants to use for jail operations.

If the county sought a one-eighth percent sales tax to raise jail operating money, state law says the tax money would have to be shared with the county’s municipalities on a population basis, Bowman said.

A one-eighth percent sales tax would generate about $216,000 a year, of which — sharing with the municipalities —the county’s share would be about $123,000.

If the county only got $123,000 from the tax, it

would not be enough to pay for operating a new jail, officials said.

But if Bowman could persuade the municipalities to give up their shares of the tax money, the county could use the entire $216,000 to pay for jail operations.

County officials are considering asking voters for a one-half percent sales tax for the jail project. Three-eights percent would be used to retire revenue bonds that would be sold to raise the money for construction, with the remainder going toward operations. The tax would generate about $650,000 a year.

Because the tax money would be used to retire revenue bonds, the county would not have to share it with the municipalities, the officials were told.