Approval of site, selection of architect next steps in new Grant County Jail construction

EPHRATA — The Grant County commissioners will have an online hearing to gather public input on the proposed site of the new Grant County Jail.

The proposed site is adjacent to the existing Grant County Work Release Center, 1631 E. Division Ave., in Ephrata. The land is fenced, but borders Cessna and Enterprise avenues.

The online hearing is 3 p.m. Feb. 22. Commissioners also are taking written public comment through Feb. 19.

Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones said the county owns six acres on the north side of the work release facility.

“We have been in initial contact with the port (of Ephrata), because the port owns the property all around that,” Jones said. “We’re in contact with the port regarding some property right next to it.”

The site was one of three options recommended by CRA Architects, of Tallahassee, Florida, which was hired to assist with site selection. The architects who design the actual jail will be hired in a separate process that begins after the site has been approved, Jones said.

The other options included county-owned property adjacent to the existing law and justice center, 35 C St., in Ephrata, and county-owned land on Randolph Road, north of Moses Lake, Jones said.

The options were considered by the county’s law and justice council, which made the recommendation to the commissioners. Counties are required to have a law and justice council, and Grant County’s was set up following the approval of a three-tenths of 1% law and justice sales tax increase in 2019.

“The way the law and justice tax works is, all the sales tax that is collected in the county is split. So 60% of the revenue goes to the county (and) 40% of that is split between all the municipalities that have police departments,” Jones said.

“In 2020, I believe we were slated to receive about $2.1 million,” he said.

However, sales tax revenues were higher, at about 12%, than 2020 budget projections, so the amount received by each agency was higher.

The tax was collected beginning in April, and installments have been paid to the county and cities.

The proposed jail site is within the Ephrata city limits. If commissioners give their approval, the proposal will go to Ephrata city officials.

Once a site is approved, county officials will select an architect to design the project.

“So that’s where we get into the nuts and bolts with our other law and justice partners, such as the courts, the clerks, the prosecutor, the defenders, on what that building up there looks like,” Jones said.

Jones said the construction timeline is to be determined.

“I’m optimistic, and once we get the architect on board for the design, I don’t think it will take another year (to design),” Jones said.

The estimates he said he received were about two years for the planning and design process.

“It’s all going to depend on the architects, and how fast they can get (the information) to us, and how fast we can come to a conclusion on what that design looks like. The cost is going to be a major factor,” Jones said.

County officials will issue a bond to pay for the project.

“It’s just a matter of how much the total cost of that jail is, they (county officials) would go out to bond on that, and then they would repay that bond with the law and justice tax revenues,” Jones said.

There is no design yet, and as a result, no estimated construction cost, Jones said. But part of the selection process was determining some of the scope of the project.

“The architects are recommending, based on future population growth up to 2040, and the amount of different types of classifications (of prisoners) that we have within our facility, they’re recommending right at a 512-bed facility,” Jones said.

“When we get pen to paper with the architects, then we’ll be able to break it down to dollars and cents,” he added.