Clay Looking At New Piece Of Land For Jail

Clay County is looking into another piece of land that could eventually be used for a county jail.

County Mayor Dale Reagan said they are looking at using a small piece of land the county owns near the government complex. Reagan said the architect is working on a preliminary footprint to make sure the jail would fit on that property.

“As far as infrastructure and everything, it’s pretty much here,” Reagan said. “It’s here in the city and so, with the exception of having to move some sewer lines and water lines but that goes along with it and everything. That’s no, anything to hold up the process and everything.”

Reagan said they are considering hiring a construction manager to help with the process moving forward. Reagan said the new facility is planned to have around sixty beds for inmates.

“The sheriff still feels fairly comfortable with that number,” Reagan said. “And of course we’d love to have went with what we started with but we’ve got to work within our means.”

Reagan said they originally planned to have one hundred beds at the new jail but the cost was too high.

“It cost us around, in the neighborhood of $230,000 per bed,” Reagan said. “In the overall scheme of things and everything that’s basically about when you get to talking about how many beds you want and you put a figure to that and you’re looking at that big figure that scares you to death.”

Reagan said they decided on this location because of the convenience and transport costs it will save being so close to the courtroom.

“We just didn’t realize and know if it would work or not,” Reagan said. “And we had this other property which we had plenty of, about eight acres on that site which would have made plenty of room for, I know the sheriff was big on having a place for the inmates to work a garden or have a county garden and stuff like and everything. So we looked at that but now we won’t have the room to do that here.”

Reagan said their original plan was for a 23,000 square foot building but current plans are around 18,600 square feet.