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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Contact:
Don Krupp, Chief Administrative Officer, 360-786-5440
Jurisdictions
Proceed with Law and Justice Study
OLYMPIA -- Thurston County Commissioners today
(Monday) signed a resolution of participation to proceed with study of a
possible regional jail and courts facility.
The city and town councils of Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, Yelm, Tenino,
Rainier and Bucoda and local criminal justice officials had earlier signed the
resolution. The next step,
according to Thurston County Chief Administrative Officer Don Krupp, is to
work out details of how a law and justice center might operate.
“We have the basic framework in place for a proposed facility.
Now we must work together to fill in the specifics on a number of
sensitive issues such as how the governance would work, how to guarantee bed
space for the cities, maintenance and operation of the facility and other
matters. Resolving those issues
will be critical to deciding if we have a strong enough plan to take to the
voters to seek passage of a construction bond.”
The draft plan calls for a phased in facility
that would consist of the jail, courtrooms and related office space.
The estimated price tag for the first phase is $100,000,000 with a
possible construction bond of $80,000,000.
The first phase is designed to get the county to the year 2025.
Also today, Commissioners approved the process
that could lead to the hiring of a project director, architect and planner for
the facility. Krupp says, “It
may seem like we are moving too fast with trying to find these key players for
the project. However, it’s
prudent to move forward for several reasons.
For one thing, we have only estimates of the cost and these planners
can give us a much better idea of what the true costs might be.
Secondly, we are under some pressure to alleviate crowded conditions in
the current jail. If we wait
until we take the issue to voters it could add another year to the
timeline.”
In the meantime, the Justice Project Oversight
Committee (made up of mayors, one
County Commissioner and a superior court judge) and the Justice Project
Management Team (made up of city managers, the county administrator and the
courts administrator) will continue to meet on a regular basis to work on
details of the intergovernmental agreement that would be used to manage the
proposed law and justice center.
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