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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 27, 2003
Contact:
Don Krupp, Chief Administrative Officer,
360-786-5440
Justice
Project Partners Refine Cost Estimates
Olympia- After receiving more specific information and
design schematics, Thurston County and the cities and towns in the county,
have a better idea what construction of a new justice facility might cost.
Current estimates range from $125 million for 6 courtrooms, office
space and jail beds for 768 inmates to $90 Million for a jail only with space
for 768 inmates. Thurston County
Chief Administrative Officer Don Krupp says the revised estimates are higher
than ones made two years ago. “Our original estimates were made applying cost formulas to
a hypothetical concept of what was needed.
The new numbers reflect specific design and program components and a
much better understanding of what it will take to configure, construct, equip
and open a facility that will meet the long term needs of the citizens of
Thurston County.”
The partners continue to seek ways to lower the capital
and operating costs for the project. “We
are looking at everything; cutting programs, reducing amenities, eliminating
square footage; anything that gains us economies in constructing and running
the facility. The challenge is to
do it in such a way that it gives the community as much of a long-term
solution as we can devise. It
does not make sense to build something that will present us with the same jail
overcrowding problem one, two or three years after a new facility opens.”
Krupp says the cutting process has not been an easy one.
“We have had some real struggles at the staff level over where
reductions can be made. Every cut has a direct impact on programs and services in any
new Justice Center that we might open. We
have tried to be very frugal while maintaining the necessary components needed
to run a proper facility.”
The next step for the process is continued discussion
within the Justice Project Management Team, the Justice Project Oversight
Committee and the Citizens Value Assessment Team.
Eventually, a final proposal will be developed and the issue could be
placed before voters in a bond election.
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