OZARK -- After months of debate, Franklin County's Quorum Court decided to ask voters in an Aug. 8 special election to approve two sales taxes totaling 0.5 percent for construction and operation of a new county jail.
After a two-hour discussion at the county courthouse Monday night, Quorum Court members opted to ask voters for the money to build an 80-bed jail on Airport Road in north Ozark for up to $9 million.
The other option was to build an addition for 90 beds at the county's current lockup, on the Ozark town square, for $5.7 million.
While a new jail would provide fewer beds than a renovation of the current jail would, Quorum Court members and County Judge Rickey Bowman noted the new jail would have room for expansion, would provide secure storage for records and evidence the sheriff's current facilities don't allow, and would provide new offices for the sheriff's office.
Sheriff Anthony Boen said during an April 13 meeting expanding the jail wouldn't provide storage for records and evidence, which are kept in small buildings that aren't climate-controlled. He also said the new kitchen would be too small and the sheriff's offices in the 43-year-old building wouldn't be included in renovations.
According to the ballot wording, if voters approve the $9 million bond issue, a 0.375 percent sales tax would be levied. Kevin Faught, with bond underwriter Stephens Inc., said it would take 16 years to pay off those bonds. Bonds totaling $5.7 million to renovate the current jail would take nine years to pay off, Faught said.
The 0.375 percent sales tax would generate about $650,000 a year. Faught said the annual bond debt would be $550,000 on the $9 million bond issue and $515,000 on the $5.7 million bond issue.
Passage of the 0.125 percent sales tax would be a separate ballot question. If approved, the 0.125 percent sales tax would be a permanent tax to pay for the additional operational and maintenance costs a larger jail would require.
The 0.125 percent sales tax would generate about $216,000 a year, but the county would have to share it with other cities in the county. The county's share would be about $123,000 a year.
Quorum Court member Rex Heffington -- who along with Garrett Shepherd voted against the option for a new jail -- said he worried that if interest rates rose, the 16-year jail debt would be overly burdensome.
Shepherd voted against the proposed sales taxes, saying the increases would make Franklin County's sales-tax rate higher than any other nearby county's and would drive away business to counties with lower tax rates.
Franklin County's basic sales-tax rate is 8 percent. The rate in Ozark is 10 percent.
Bowman said he was troubled that the new jail would have only 80 beds. Jim Langford with Collierville, Tenn., jail builder SouthBuild LLC said he thought the jail could be built for less than estimated and, if so, that the county could afford to add space for 10 to 12 more beds.
Langford said SouthBuild recently completed a 308-bed jail for Crawford County that originally was budgeted to cost $20 million to build but ended up costing $17 million.
Franklin County officials have wrestled with the jail issue for years because it is undersized, has been called a safety hazard to jailers and inmates, and violates several state standards for jails.
The Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee for the 5th Judicial Circuit has ordered the county to bring the jail into compliance with state standards or face closure. The committee is scheduled to meet with Boen and Bowman in Ozark on Friday to check on the county's progress.
NW News on 04/26/2017