There’s no turning back now for the Mower County Board of Commissioners.

They are determined to proceed to build a new two-story, 128-bed jail and justice center.

On Tuesday, the now three-member county board met in regular session to handle a handful of jail and justice center-related items.

Also, tentative plans were announced for the official ground-breaking for the new facilities to be constructed between First and Second Streets and Second and Third Avenues Northeast in downtown Austin.

And, the new temporary board chairman attempted to put to rest renewed efforts to have the commissioners “step back” and review the financial impact of the estimated $30.7 million project on taxpayers.

It’s not going to happen.

“I think the commissioners were very specific about what was to be done last week,” David Hillier, 3rd District county commissioner, said Tuesday. “The project is going forward.”

Hillier was appointed temporary board chairman a week ago to replace Dave Tollefson, 5th District county commissioner, who took a medical leave of absence.

Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner, is himself on a medical leave of absence, leaving Hillier and Tim Gabrielson, 1st District, and Dick Lang, 4th District, a three-member county board.

At Tollefson’s last meeting (March 16) before going on hiatus for surgery, he, along with the other three commissioners, rejected a petition presented the county board, asking the elected officials to allow Mower County voters to vote on whether the county should be allowed to issue bonds to fund payment of the proposed new jail.

Acting on the advice of the commissioners’ legal counsel, Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen, the commissioners said the Minnesota statute the petitioners cited did not apply to the jail project.

Tollefson, who was elected to the county board, in part, as an advocate of scaling back the anticipated costs of the jail and justice center in 2007, when he upset incumbent Garry Ellingson, has now become a champion of the project.

At his last meeting before departing for medical reasons, Tollefson said, “The time is right” to build a new jail and justice center. He also said the project would be an “economic boon” for Mower County, during a depressed economy.

Mower County’s jail has now been downgraded by the Minnesota Department of Corrections to a 90-day lockup, forcing the county to house prisoners in neighboring counties.

New jails have been constructed in recent years at Osage, Iowa, Albert Lea and Owatonna, where Mower County now boards its prisoners.

All three jails are half-empty, forcing officials to seek new sources of revenue.

Freeborn County, for example, wants to house federal prisoners in addition to those sentenced by state courts.

The Associated Press reported March 18 Hubbard County (Park Rapids) is only the latest count to build a new state-of-the-art jail only to see it stand half-empty.

The DOC reports jail occupancy is down across the state by 3.5 percent this year.

The commissioners are acting on the recommendation of a jail study committee, which recommended building a new jail to meet over-crowding problems and to improve court security for district judges.

The city of Austin is cooperating with Mower County. The city gave the county $1.5 million, which is being spent to turn the Robbins block into a geothermal well field for the new jail and justice center.

The county gave the city $2.7 million to acquire two blocks of downtown city property, where the new facilities will be built. Only one of the two blocks being cleared by the city will be needed. The second will be used to expand the jail from 128 to 250 beds when needed.

The Austin Area Chamber of Commerce also endorsed the “downtown plan” for jail and justice center facilities, saying it will create an economic revival for a depressed central business district.

Supporters

unwavering

Supporters of the facilities — local law enforcement, district court, court administration and county attorney and corrections officials — have not wavered in endorsing the project.

However, the county’s well-publicized announcement it will have to curtail programs and services and possible layoff workers, because of the impact of the state budget deficit on local government, caused the multi-million dollar spending for new jail and justice center facilities to become suspect in some circles.

When Mower County residents received their property tax notices recently and saw double-digit increases that only added fuel to the flames of taxpayer discontent.

How will the operation be paid for?

At Tuesday’s meeting, Hillier attempted to allay those fears with his strong words; particularly one questioning how the county will be able to afford to operate and maintain a new jail once it is opened.

In other words, “If the county is struggling financially, where is the money going to come from?”

“The finance committee has been looking at that,” Hillier said, “and there will be a substitution of boarding out prisoner dollars that will now become internal expenses.”

Hillier was referring to the money the county currently spends to board out prisoners, which can be spent on the operation of the new jail.

Also, the county has previously announced it will use wind energy production tax revenues to pay the principal and interest on the jail bonds.

It has already sold $10 million in lease revenue purchase bonds, thanks to the Mower County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, to fund construction of the justice center-only portion of the project.

Craig Oscarson, county coordinator, told the commissioners Tuesday, “We are under budget at this time for the Robbins block project.”

MAVCO Systems will be paid $94,500 for asbestos abatement of buildings along the east side of the Robbins block.

According to Oscarson, the interior abatement and salvage work is ending and actual demolition of the building could begin as early as Thursday.

The block — First by Second Streets and Second by Third Avenues Northeast — is where the county plans to construct a geothermal well field to heat and cool the new jail and justice center facilities.

Jon Pristach of Knutson Construction Services, Inc., Rochester, the construction manger for the project, reviewed detention equipment bids with the commissioners Tuesday, and there was more good news to share.

According to Pristach, the low bid from a Grand island, NE., firm in the amount of $1,714,850 for the jail’s interior was 40 percent lower than the estimate of $3.1 million.

The commissioners approved a bid for sliding cell doors opposed to swing-out doors, which Hillier said, would alleviate safety and space concerns.

Groundbreaking coming soon

Two more equipment bid packages remain to be accepted by the commissioners.

According to Pristach, all the bids for the jail and justice center project should be ready for the commissioners’ final review by their next meeting, Tuesday, April 7.

Also Tuesday, the commissioners approved consulting contracts for the geothermal well field.

The consulting by a Little Falls firm, which will conduct pressure and depth checks on the geothermal wells to be dug in the Robbins block turf.

The other consulting contract will go to a Chosen Valley firm who will conduct tests on construction materials’ integrity such as concrete and masonry.

The first contract will result in an estimated expenditure of $15,000, while the latter represents a $56,195 expenditure.

Fourth district commissioner Lang expressed concern over the use of the word “estimate.”

He said, “I don’t want these estimates to go out of sight. Estimates are scary.”

The commissioners also approved changes to the construction manager’s contract for services. No dollar amount of the changes was given.

After all the contracts for jail and justice center-related equipment and work were approved Tuesday, the county coordinator said, “We’re well under the estimates for the project right now.”

The three commissioners agreed to wait until the two commissioners on medical leave return before holding an official groundbreaking for the project. That could be May 1 or after construction is expected to begin. The concrete footings for the new facilities will come first in the south block, whether or not the north block (Third to Fourth Avenue Northeast) is cleared of the remaining buildings acquired by the city of Austin. Thus, “sidewalk superintendents” and other witnesses to the historic capital improvement project could briefly see old buildings come down, while a new $30.7 million jail goes up.