Jail Task Force eyes bus barn site

Red Willow County's jail task force members have come up with what they think might be two better locations for a county jail than the 28 1/2-acre site they considered two weeks ago.

Task force members Friday afternoon instructed chairman Reuben Hoff Jr. to officially contact the McCook Public Schools superintendent and board of education to determine definitely whether the school would sell its bus barn location, in the 800 block of West Q, how soon and for how much.

Hoff said the school owns 2 3/4 acres at the West Q location; jail consultants say a 30-bed jail with adequate off-street parking requires 2.2 acres.

Jail task force members scored the bus barn location 20 1/2 points, using the same criteria they considered to rate four locations during their Nov. 22 meeting. This judging criteria included: traffic and access issues, design and planning issues, public issues, economic and timing issues and engineering issues.

The four locations and their scores were: Charlie's Place on West Fifth, 9 1/2 points; McCook Christian Church land on North Highway 83, 14 1/2 points; Sears on West Fifth, 15 1/2 points; and the 28 1/2 acres of land owned by Claude Cappel at West Tenth and Q, 16 1/2 points.

At the Nov. 22 meeting, Hoff was instructed to contact the school district about its bus barn location and land it owns south of the practice football field on West Tenth; Red Willow County fair board members about the northwest corner of the county fairground, at the corner of West Q and Tenth streets; and Larry Rathbun, about the Four County Feed location at the West J and Highway 83 junction.

Task force members eliminated the Four County Feed location, 1.9 acres, as being too small; and the schools' West Tenth Street property because the district has long-range plans for that land which include relocating the bus barn there.

Using jail consultants' grading scale, the Red Willow County fairgrounds property, too, scored 20 1/2 points. However, task force members felt there may be less impact on neighbors at the bus barn location.

And, it is also possible, Hoff said, that the school may consider swapping the bus barn location for the City of McCook's public safety center, using the existing fire station for bus parking and alleviating the schools' need to build a replacement bus garage.

The city's existing public safety center (police department, holding cells and fire station) would not be needed if the City of McCook agrees to join the county in the construction of a new public safety facility that would include a county jail, city and county law enforcement offices and a city fire department.

The jail task force will determine the top three possible facility locations and recommend the best location to county commissioners. The commissioners will decide upon the best location and then leave the final decision -- whether to approve bonds to build the facility -- to Red Willow County voters.

Hoff told task force members that School Superintendent Dr. Don Marchant did not have a price for which the school would sell the bus barn location. Task force members instructed Hoff to contact Dr. Marchant, who has the opportunity to discuss the situation with his board at either a special meeting Dec. 6 or a regular meeting Dec. 12.

The jail task force had planned to go before the McCook City Council, to ask for the city's participation in the new public safety center project, on Dec. 19. However, because that timetable may not give the school enough time to consider the sale of the bus barn land and the jail task force members to prepare their presentation to the city council, task force members voted to wait to approach the city council until January.

Jail task force members will meet again this month after the school board meets to prepare the task force's presentation to the city council.