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Harrison Officials Eye New Facility to House County Jail

CADIZ — Harrison County has officially accepted a new property in hopes of converting it into a new jail and law enforcement center.

The SSG George J. Conaway U.S. Army Reserve Center property was given to Harrison County, at no cost to the county, to potentially hold a jail, sheriff’s office and 911 center.

The Board of Commissioners intend to conduct a study to determine whether the building will be feasible to function as a jail.

The size, location, cost, and potential funding sources for the new facility must be determined before moving forward with construction plans.

The study will take approximately two to three months, Commissioner Don Bethel said at Wednesday’s meeting.

“We do not know how much of that building can be retrofitted for an actual jail and the cost of that. Not only the cost of that, but the operational cost,” Bethel said. “We want to do all this without taking any money out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”

Following the completion of the study, Bethel said they will then check on the funding avenues to support the project.

The project previously had an estimated cost of $10 million.

Bethel said that loans will mainly fund the project, along with grants and oil and gas money the county has received.

“We don’t want to bankrupt the county to do this and we certainly don’t want to put it on the levy because people certainly don’t want to pay any more money to make prisoners’ lives more comfortable, so we’re going to do our job, and hopefully it will turn out for the best,” Bethel said.

Bethel said that in the event the study concludes the building will not adequately house the impending jail, it may still be feasible to hold the sheriff’s office and 911 center.

“It doesn’t have to be a jail, but at this time, that’s our main focus,” he said.

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