Clay Hopeful To Bid Jail Project In Next Three Months

After several years in the making, Clay County taking moving forward with progress on its jail project.

Mayor Dale Reagan said that he’s thankful to be able to take the steps forward.

“We got to talk with our engineer and they were bringing us up to date on where we’re at,” Reagan said. “So we’re in great hopes that, I think she said, within about three months, that we’d be ready to bid this thing out so I’m thankful for that.”

Reagan said that he knows folks in the community have wanted to see actions since raising the county’s wheel tax to help with jail costs. He said that all of that funding is put into a reserve to help pay off the debt of the project and help with operational costs.

“When you buy your tags and everything, that extra money, it’s not going into a general fund and being spent on whatever, it’s set up in a reserve,” Reagan said. “So it’s there, so we’re building that up. And hopefully, Good Lord willing, when we get this jail up and going, hopefully we’ll have enough build-up in that debt service to knock that debt down quite a bit in a short amount of time.”

Reagan said that of the $50 wheel tax, $28 goes towards paying off the debt and $22 goes to help with operational costs.