Daily Journal staff reports
By spring, the county will have a better idea of how much a new community corrections facility would cost to build, staff and operate.
This week, the county council unanimously approved spending $395,000 to hire DLZ to design the new facility. Officials hope to have those designs by early next year.
The approval was another step in the process to build a new facility to replace the current pole barn that houses the community corrections program, director Albert Hessman said. The goal is to give the program more room to house more offenders in the work-release program and to have more space to offer classes that would help the offenders, Hessman said.
Officials have estimated the new center could cost $4 million to $5 million to build. But the designs will give a more accurate estimate of the construction costs.
The designs also will give officials a better idea of how many people will be needed to staff the new facility, Hessman said.
The community corrections program is funded through grants and fees paid by offenders in the work release and home detention programs, and Hessman said he hopes to keep it that way. He said his hope is that the program also can get more grants in the future.
