Two special called county meetings occurred on July 24, that will keep the jail construction timeline on track. The jail committee workshop listened to an in depth presentation by Spirit Architects itemizing the process for the new jail. Spirit Architects have made several visits to determine the specific and unique needs of Union County. After Spirit consulted with all stakeholders from the sheriff's department and elected officials to concerned citizens and non-profits serving inmates, Jim Langford and Mark Hammer addressed the budget, schedules, site, and scope of the project.

Using known standard data for jail construction of $750 to $800 per square foot for the jail and the office(s) and $400 to $450 per square foot for the courtroom, the cost with a courtroom should fall between $29M to $32M. These figures will be adjusted after the survey. The schedule to let the bid would be Spring of 2026 assuming the site testing goes well. Two sites on the proposed property appear to be suitable for construction but will be more definitive after laser and geotesting. The facility will have approximately 170 beds and will encompass 35,000 square feet for the jail and an additional approximately 7,000 square feet for the courtroom.

The commission had previously set aside $100,000 for site suitability. At this meeting, Commission approved hiring a surveyor at a cost of $15,000 and a geotech for $20,700. Then the commission voted to approve Robert Campbell as the civil engineer for $45,600. The combined amount of $81, 300 will be used of the initial money which was set aside. Commissioners also authorized Mayor Bailey to obtain quotes for clearing whatever acreage needed to be cleared as determined by the survey and the core drilling.

County Mayor Jason Bailey noted that Trustee Gina Gilbert had invested taxpayer dollars and had grown the money by well over $1M. County Clerk Pam Ailor added that collections from the wheel tax had significantly increased. Finance Director Missy Brown informed the commission that debt service surplus could be used for the jail project. Commissioners agreed to transfer $2.3M from Fund 151 debt service to Fund 171 capital projects to be used to pay the architect fees as needed.

Commission will meet on Monday, August 25, for the next regular meeting at 7 p.m. at the courthouse.