Crawford County officials seek to expand land buy for new jail site

The amount of land to be purchased for a voter-approved, bond-financed $20 million county jail facility in Crawford County could be growing in size if a plan discussed at Tuesday evening's (Sept. 9) Jail Committee meeting is approved by the full Quorum Court at its regular meeting next week.

According to Justice of the Peace Lloyd Cole, chairman of the Crawford County Quorum Court's Jail Committee, the county already has under contract an agreement to purchase about eight acres of land along U.S. Highway 64 just outside of the Van Buren city limits for about $275,000.

A landowner to the east of the land under contract has made an offer to the county to sell it another 7.66 acres of land, Cole said.

"The purpose of the meeting is to explain to the JPs the proposed site that we want to purchase that we told the voters. And we have an opportunity to buy 7.66 acres to the east for the amount of $191,000, which I think is a bargain and it is within our budget," he explained. "The $20 million construction cost, it is within that budget to spend up to $450,000 for land purchase. So we can buy that without having to increase any costs.”

According to Cole, the landowner had originally planned to build at least one subdivision on the land tucked between Interstate 40 and U.S. 64, but the selection of the adjoining property by the county for the voter-approved jail project scuttled the developer's plans.

"The owner of this was going to build subdivisions and said, 'Hey, my plans to build houses is not going to be very good with the jail right next door. Why don't you guys buy the whole thing from me?' So, he's given me a good price and we have under contract pending Quorum Court approval to go ahead and buy that 7.66 acres.”

The land will allow the county to more easily expand the jail if needed in future decades, according to Cole, who showed the land that was already under contract would have been usable but would have required more dirt and fill before being usable and could have run up a higher total cost on future expansions.

"It'll cost that much just to prepare that land for a (future) structure as (we're paying for) the land we're trying to buy right now," County Judge John Hall interjected.

He also said expanding the jail to the west of the proposed jail on land the county had already planned to buy would have made prisoner escorts through the facility more dangerous since there would not be a direct link between the sheriff's intake center and any future expansion without first having to go through the original jail. Having the additional land will allow the county to build any future expansion closer to intake and reduce the distance inmates would have to be transported.

"If you're bringing a prisoner in, you've got to escort through one controlled facility all the way to get to another facility. Well, as someone who's escorted inmates before, you don't want to escort them any further than you have to. You have a lot of things going on," Cole said.

"You've got a control center right here with 350 inmates. There's a lot going on. I don't want to have to transfer them through there. If we come up and make a 'Y' through here, we can purchase this over to the east – the wagon wheel, we call it – and at some point add another facility right here.”

Cole said any expansion of the new facility would likely not take place for another 20 to 30 years since the new facility in the planning stages is expected to meet the county's capacity needs for at least the next two decades or more. And while planning is taking place to ensure enough space is available for future growth of the jail, Cole said enough land would be purchased so other county offices could relocate in future years.

"You know, we used to be proud of the fact that we have the oldest operational courthouse west of the Mississippi (River). I'm not so sure (that's) something to be proud of. We've got an old building we've got to keep maintaining. At some point, they (may) want to build a new courthouse over here. They may want to move all the county government buildings in this area. You know the jail can expand right here, but we still got all this. So at some point, we consolidate all the county government building in one location. It's right between Van Buren and Alma.”

Hall said bonds sold last month are scheduled to be released to U.S. Bank as trustee for use by the county on Sept. 24, with closing on the purchase of the two properties on U.S Highway 64 scheduled for Sept. 26.

He added that bids on the project are expected to be let in December, with construction on the new jail beginning in late January or February with a scheduled completion within 18 to 20 months.

The Crawford County Quorum Court will vote on the land purchases at its Monday (Sept. 15) meeting.