Blog note: Several grand jury
reports have commented on the need for a new jasil.
The Siskiyou County Board of
Supervisors will continue its efforts to bring a new jail to Yreka on Tuesday
when the supervisors deliberate on a new expenditure to pave the way for a
state grant.
The county has worked over the
past year to cover the costs of a new jail, first made possible when Siskiyou
was awarded a $24.1 million grant through California's Assembly Bill 900, which
was introduced to assist counties with the reduction of state prison sentences
for certain crimes.
Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey
– backed by numerous Grand Jury reports – has long extolled the need for a new
jail, both out of safety concerns for officers and inmates and a deep list of
deferred maintenance projects.
With the need and some of the
necessary funding, the county has spent recent months trying to cut
nonessential functions and make design choices to reduce what was originally a
$7.5 million funding gap identified by architectural firm Nacht & Lewis.
One cost cutting measure was the
elimination of a kitchen facility, infirmary and some additional program space
from the base project with the hope that those aspects could be wrapped into
the final product with a successful bid for funds from Senate Bill 863.
Approved in 2014, SB 863
authorized the state to sell up to $500 million in revenue bonds to finance
county jail projects.
According to agenda documents,
the original cost estimate for the additional facilities was $8,441,454, the
majority of which was estimated for the actual construction.
The new estimate, according to
the documents, is $16,948,000, which accounts for the cost escalation due to
increases in construction costs.
In order to accommodate the
potential awarding of SB 863 funds, the county on Tuesday will consider whether
or not it will set aside $113,000 in accumulated capital outlay funds to
account for the requisite funding match on the estimated costs.
At its last meeting, the board
agreed to tap the same capital outlay fund – which at that time contained
$600,000 – for sewer installation costs in the amount of $126,597.
August 3, 2015
The
Siskiyou Daily News
By David Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment