Stevens County Gives Up Plan To Build Cells State Will Pay For New 911 Dispatch Center, But Not Juvenile Holding Cells

Empty-pocketed Stevens County commissioners have given up on a plan to acquire some juvenile holding cells and more space for the overcrowded Sheriff’s Department.

County officials had hoped to save money by piggy-backing the cells and sheriff’s quarters onto a new state-funded emergency dispatching center. But the state will pay only for the dispatching center, and the county lacks money for the proposed additions.

Sheriff Craig Thayer said the county will go to Plan B in about two weeks, when it hires an architect to design a dispatching-center annex for the county ambulance building. The center will be across Birch Street from the courthouse, while original plans called for an annex to the courthouse itself.

Thayer said expanding the building that houses the county’s volunteer ambulance service was the least costly of seven options. The work is expected to cost $400,000 to $500,000, to be paid entirely from a state telephone tax.

Construction is expected to be completed in time for the county to meet a Jan. 1 state deadline for providing “enhanced 911” dispatching. The new system uses sophisticated computer equipment to pinpoint the location of callers.

The original plan for a two-story annex with a basement would have cost an estimated $1.3 million.

One of its features was to have been several short-term juvenile holding cells. The cells could have been used for offenders who were sentenced to three days or less or to avoid transportation costs for juvenile suspects awaiting arraignment.

Stevens County has no juvenile cells now, and must take its juvenile prisoners to detention centers in other counties - if space is available - or turn them loose.

Pend Oreille County had a similar problem until two years ago, when it built three metal cages for about $10,000 and placed them in a county-controlled industrial building. Guards were hired on weekends, and young criminals served their sentences three days at a time.

Juvenile probation counselor Cindy Delay said the system worked well, but the county had to vacate the building earlier this year so the new owner could move in. County officials were unable to find another building with adequate space, ventilation, daylight and restrooms to meet federal juvenile jail standards.

Delay said the cells are less needed now, anyway, because the county now is able to rent juvenile cells in Yakima. Also, she noted a regional detention center is expected to open this fall at Medical Lake.

The portable Pend Oreille cells - dubbed Hotel California by their inventor, Sheriff Doug Malby - are up for sale.

Delay said Stevens County officials expressed interest in the cells, but lack a suitable place to put them. She said Newport city officials also have expressed interest.

, DataTimes