Kane County plans to build new jail

Kanab » After more than a decade of discussion, Kane County is on the verge of building a new jail.

Tracy Glover, chief deputy with the Kane County Sheriff, said the existing jail in this southern Utah town was built to house 22 inmates. Glover said the jail regularly holds 26 inmates and that the population peaked recently at 34 inmates.

"We've instituted a policy not to take misdemeanor offenders if we're overcrowded," Glover said. "Some of the inmates have to sleep on floor beds if we are [overcrowded]."

Glover, who has spearheaded the project along with a residents committee, said a new 200-bed jail will cost $15 million. Half the cost will be paid by a 2.5 percent, 30-year loan from the state's Community Impact Fund Board. The other half is expected to be covered by a low-interest loan and a grant from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program.

Glover said the county will be eligible for the federal loan in January. Architects for the project are expected to be hired later this month.

If financing goes as planned, Glover said property taxes won't be used to pay for the jail. Instead, the state has agreed to lease at least 140 beds in the new facility, money that will be used to help repay the bonds. At least 40 beds will be reserved for county inmates.

County commissioner Douglas Heaton said the decision to build a new jail was made in cooperation

with the residents' committee and the Taxpayers' Association of Kane County.

If the federal money does not materialize, a contingency plan calls for issuing municipal bonds on the open market at higher interest rates. That would dramatically increase the jail's cost.

"We don't expect to do that unless something catastrophic happens in the economy nationally or in the state," Heaton said.

He said a new jail built just for county inmates would cost around $10 million.

"It just makes sense to do it this way," Heaton said.

Sky Chaney, president of the taxpayers' association, said his group agrees a new jail is needed and generally supports the financing plan. He said that support is based largely on a study conducted by Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Utah that recommended four options, including the one chosen.

Chaney said his group's only concern is that taxpayers could be required to pay the higher interest if the federal funding does not come through.

"That could raise the cost of the whole project because of the debt to service the loan," Chaney said.

However, a new jail would create jobs: The number of corrections officers would more than double, from the current seven to 15 to 18.

Inmates at the new jail would have to be transported to the 6th District court, which is in the same complex as the current jail. Glover said many hearings will be held via video-conferencing, with inmates remaining at the jail.

The new jail also will provide space for a new sheriff's office. Glover said talks are under way with the state to possibly provide space for Utah Highway Patrol offices.

Glover said residents who spoke up at public hearings on the jail were concerned about safety and worried the facility will attract families of inmates who might create problems.

He said the sheriff has discretion over which inmates the jail will accept from the state.

"We won't have the worst of the worst offenders," said Glover.

mhavnes@sltrib.com