Firm to figure cost of making jail bigger

Kootenai County residents will know by August how much a proposed second expansion of the county’s jail will cost.

The county commission signed a $76,700 contract Tuesday with an Olympia-based architect firm to design the expansion and set the price tag. The commission needs the cost estimate from KMB Justice Facilities Group by August so it can start preparing for a November election.

Facing a growing inmate population, the county will ask voters again to approve a half-cent sales tax to expand the jail at Government Way and Dalton Avenue. The specifics of the jail expansion proposal won’t be known until the cost estimate is complete, but commissioners expect it to be smaller and less expensive than the recent $12 million expansion.

In 2000, voters agreed to pay a half-cent extra in sales tax to fund the $12 million expansion. Half of the extra sales tax money collected each year went to pay off the jail while the other half went to property tax relief. The county expects to pay off the previous expansion in June 2006.

If voters approve the proposal for a second jail expansion in November, then the county would continue charging the extra half-cent sales tax. The county would have until 2009 to pay off the proposed new expansion.

The jail is designed to house a maximum of 325 people, yet the population is already averaging about 326 inmates a day. Some days the jail has as many as 360 inmates.

If the jail isn’t expanded county officials predict they will be forced to send inmates to other jails such as those in Shoshone, Bonner and Sanders counties.