Officials get a peek at plan for new jail

VAN BUREN - Crawford County could move into a new jail in January 2017 if voters approve two sales taxes next month, a jail architect told county officials Friday.

Jim Langford, part of a team calling itself SouthBuild, presented officials with details of what a new jail would look like, how long it would take to build and how much it could cost.

County Judge John Hall and Sheriff Ron Brown said they believed the SouthBuild Team, composed of Spirit Architecture of Collierville, Tenn., and Smith-Doyle Contractors Inc. of Cordova, Tenn., has put together a plan that will satisfy the county’s needs.

County officials have been wrestling for years over the need to replace its overcrowded and out-of-date jail and the lack of success in persuading citizens to pay for a new county lockup. Three attempts to pass sales taxes have failed in the past decade.

County residents are being asked to pass a 0.5 percent sales tax, the revenue from which would finance the repayment of bonds that would be sold to raise the $20 million county officials want to spend to build and equip a jail with space for 260 inmates.

Citizens also will vote on a 0.25 percent sales tax, the revenue from which would be used to pay for the additional costs of operating a larger jail. The current county jail has space for 88 inmates.

Langford said the South-Build Team put together an estimate that the project would cost $19.2 million, which would include the purchase of land, construction, furnishings and equipment, demolition of structures on the property and contingencies.

He said the team assumed that inflation will drive up the construction cost by 6percent from now until construction begins in April 2015. The inflation rate was figured into the estimate.

Local trades will be hired to do the work, team member Don Abernathy said, which would help keep down the cost of construction because they wouldn’t have to add transportation costs into their bids.

Hall said the project would be an economic boost to the area, generating jobs for Van Buren, Fort Smith and Alma.

If bids were lower than expected, Langford said, the county could use the extra money to add more space for inmates to the facility. The plan stated space for 14 more inmates would cost $491,000 and space for 23 more would cost $809,000.

The county has a tentative agreement to buy 8.5 acres of land on U.S. 64 just outside the Van Buren city limits for the jail. Officials are in talks to purchase another 1.5 acres at the site to square up the current L-shaped parcel.

Langford said part of the land the county wants to buy was used as a salvage yard and that investigations will have to be made to determine if there is any oil or other substances in the soil. The team recommends that an environmental assessment be performed.

The inmates would be housed in what Langford called a pie-shaped cell structure with each section, or slice of the pie, having cells on two levels and a day room. A control area would be in the center of the pie, allowing all the sections to be monitored with a minimum of staff, Langford said.

The jail also would be the headquarters for the sheriff’s office and would include a four-station 911 communications center and a courtroom for arraignment of inmates.

The total area of the complex would be 59,000 square feet.

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/19/2014

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