County nears decision on juvenile lockup

SANDPOINT — Commissioners are closing in on a decision on how to go about replacing Bonner County’s juvenile detention center.

Commissioners met twice this week to narrow their focus on the design and layout of the proposed juvenile lockup. A decision on how to pay for the new facility and other improvements is pending, although commissioners have considered putting a two-year override levy before voters.

Commission Chairman Joe Young said a decision on how to proceed could be reached by May 26 or shortly thereafter.

But if the question is going on a ballot for an August 4 election, time is running short. The county’s legal counsel has to formulate the ballot question’s language and absentee ballots have to be sent out.

“We just don’t have a lot of time left,” county Clerk Marie Scott advised commissioners on Monday.

The county appears to be ditching plans juvenile detention center with a linear configuration and leaning toward a “podular” configuration. Although a linear facility is cheaper to construct, it’s also costlier to staff. The pod configuration enables easier supervision of inmates, county officials said.

Depending on the facility’s location at the sheriff’s complex and the scope of site improvements, the total cost ranges from $6.4 million to $7.8 million. The new lockup would replace an existing facility in a converted private residence.

The new detention center could be built in the northeast quadrant of the sheriff’s complex, which is where the existing facility is now. However, it would displace the a search-and-rescue facility and an evidence-storage building.

Sheriff Darryl Wheeler said the existing evidence facility still has a useful life and replacing it with a state-of-the-art facility is expected to cost upwards of $1.2 million. A new search-and-rescue building is projected to cost about $400,000.

Those costs could be avoided, however, if the new juvenile center is built in the northwest quadrant of the complex. That location would also leave plenty of room for detention center expansion.

Wheeler said a new detention facility trumps the need for a new evidence facility.

“I’m willing to pass that up to keep this (juvenile detention replacement project) going,” he told commissioners on Thursday.

Neither location would hamper expansion of the adult jail or interfere with the Idaho Army National Guard’s readiness center. Both locations would allow use of the existing facility while the new one is being built, which means the county would not have to pay to temporarily house youthful offenders at a regional detention center in Kootenai County.

The new juvenile lockup would be a turnkey facility, meaning it would be fully equipped, furnished and ready for use. However, it would not have a full-service kitchen. Food prepared at the adult jail would have to be delivered to the juvenile jail.

Moreover, room for food storage at the jail is already in short supply and would be insufficient to keep enough food for inmates in either facility, sheriff’s officials say.

“One way or another, we’re going to have to do something about that kitchen, Young said.

The county has also rolled the cost of a new sidewalk along North Boyer Avenue, from the sheriff’s office to the fairgrounds, into the project. The 1,900 lineal feet of walkway is projected to cost $85,000 and a requirement under city code.

The county is also considering a second ballot question to levy funds for some interior remodel work inside the courthouse.