Clay County Jail Project Remains On Track

The Clay County Jail project remains on schedule as officials continue to make plans for construction.

County Mayor Dale Reagan said engineers should finish examining the construction site within the next few weeks.

“They’re testing the land and the proposed site for the jail so we’re winding that up here in the next month,” Reagan said. “We’ll have that finished and everything and we’ll have some updates on that. Still working with the USDA for the application for the loan and we’re still on track. It’s just a long, drawn-out process.”

Reagan said as of right now, it’s hard to say when the county could see the project completed.

“It depends on if the USDA loan goes through and that gets approved,” Reagan said. “Hopefully by the time… it goes out for bid and all that, you’re still looking at probably a couple years.”

Despite the long process, Reagan remains optimistic as the jail is expected to be a major improvement over the current jail facility.

“It’d be a 150 percent improvement,” Reagan said. “The capacity on it right now is 14 beds, so we’re having to farm out a majority of the inmates that we have. We can’t house female inmates at all, so we’re housing all those in surrounding counties and elsewhere. It would be a huge improvement, something that’s been needed for many many years, but Lord be our helper in everything we’ll be on the right track.”

The proposed site for the new jail is along Highway 53 across from Buford Drive. Regan said the county has applied for a low interest USDA loan for up to $7 million. He said the amount could change depending on the design and budget the architect comes up with. The current facility was built in the early 1960s.