By Brad Stacy
The Morehead News
MOREHEAD, Ky. — Rowan County has been approved in Frankfort for a 300-bed regional jail that will be almost four times larger than the current lockup built in 1989 which has a design capacity of 78 inmates.
The Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) first reviewed the county’s application and then forwarded it to the Kentucky Local Correctional Facilities Construction Authority (KLCFCA).
Judge-Executive Jim Nickell, Deputy judge-executive Jerry Alderman and Jailer Don Hall met last week with the KLCFCA to discuss the application.
The application was approved by KLCFCA but some technicalities remain concerning who will pay for the plans for the facility.
Current state law mandates that DOC provide necessary architectural engineering for such projects but the state agency says it has no funds for that purpose under current state budget constraints.
The Department of Corrections shall provide the architectural service at no cost to the county,” said Nickell. “That cost alone would be about $1 million.”
He continued:
The DOC says they don’t have the money right now to provide the architect. We have our state representatives trying to clarify that situation over the next few months.”
Meanwhile, the judge-executive says the county will be looking at what others have done with new jails.
The plan is to visit two or three jails,” he said. “We will try to get a feel of the size of a facility and how to lay a footprint for such a project. Once we have completed that task, we will begin to consider bids for an architect.”
Nickell compares the jail project to the new county buildings constructed in 2011.
This will be a local project similar to the judicial center and courthouse,” he said. “We will have financial advisers who will help us issue bonds to fund the building.”
Nickell said a study conducted in 2011 by CMW, Inc., a Lexington architectural firm, indicated a 300-bed facility would help the county financially.
The study said a jail of that size would actually put the county close to breaking even in running the facility,” he said. “I’m not naïve enough to believe we won’t have to put money into it. We’re already supplementing the jail budget with $1.1 million out of our general fund each year.”
Judge Nickell said his main goal was to build a new jail without having to put any additional county money into the operating budget or for paying off the bonds.
We will pay for the jail by housing prisoners from surrounding counties which don’t have jails,” he said. “Those counties will pay for our services to help cover the bonds.”
Nickell stated that a tax increase for Rowan County citizens in connection with a new jail is not in the county’s plans.
Right now, we do not have any tax increases on the table,” he said. “At this point in time, if you go by the study, hopefully it’s a break-even situation. I don’t see us putting any more money into it than we do now.”