Tennessee architect picked for Crawford County jail

Crawford County Judge John Hall announced the hiring of James Langford of Collierville, Tenn.-based SouthBuilt TEAM LLC to be the architect for the county's proposed jail.

The jail, which would be constructed only if county voters approved a set of sales taxes totaling 0.75%, is estimated to cost $20 million to build and will be built along U.S. Highway 64 east of Van Buren.

Langford's past experience includes the construction of county jails in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Locally, the University of Tennessee-educated architect was involved in the design of the Washington County Adult and Juvenile Facilities, as well as the Scott County Detention Center.

According to his resume, he "has over two decades of experience in project management, programming, planning and design."

Financial terms of the contract between Langford and the county have not yet been released.

Voters in Crawford County will decide on the jail tax, which has failed on three different occasions, on May 20. If passed, the sales tax rate in Van Buren — the county's largest city — would be 10.25%, among the highest local sales tax rates in the United States.