Grand Forks County Commission says sheriff's siting committee needs to be clearer on future of old jail – Grand Forks Herald

GRAND FORKS — The Grand Forks County Commission says the county sheriff's office's location committee needs to further discuss options for renovating or demolishing the jail before making a final decision.

The former county jail, which currently houses the juvenile detention center, is one option being considered for a future Grand Forks County Sheriff’s headquarters. The City of Grand Forks would like to have the current space the sheriff uses within the Grand Forks Police Department for expansion. The siting committee narrowed its options to a lease or the renovation or demolition of the old jail. However, the commission felt the committee needed to make clear decisions on specific proposals before making a final decision.

“I just think it needs to be discussed further with the committee to maybe have (a request for proposal) ready for a commission meeting later,” Commissioner Bob Rost said. “But the committee has to decide what piece they want to do, I think that's the only way we can look at it right now.”

County Attorney Haley Wamstad, Grand Forks County Administrator Tom Ford and Grand Forks County Sheriff Andy Schneider were working together to develop requests for proposals, but wanted to hear from the full commission on its specific interests before submitting them for approval for advertising.

“The committee believes that (too many proposals for the prison) will weaken potential contractors,” Schneider said. “We are still in a very green phase of preparing these tenders because it is a complex issue.”

While there are still many unknowns about a possible move, the commission decided on two things. It wanted the committee to weigh in more on whether to renovate or demolish the jail and if the county signed a lease, whether a 10- to 15-year term would be ideal. Regardless, the old jail needs something because the courthouse machinery, including the outdated fire control panel, is located there, and juvenile detention will be moving in about a year.

Depending on when the facility selection committee meets again, it is likely that a formal decision on the jail RFPs will come before the commission in August. A decision on a lease RFP will also be made around that time. The final decision on the sheriff’s future home will likely come down to money: how much and how to spend it.

The county has 1.78 mills in its capital levy, or about $9 million, available in funds for a rental project or program, County Auditor Debbie Nelson said at the meeting.

Schneider said he wanted to make sure his office and employees actually had a home instead of being moved from one government office building to another, as has been the case for decades.

“I don’t want to build a sheriff’s office for myself, I want it to survive the next three, four, five sheriff’s offices,” Schneider said. “I also don’t want to leave someone with something that doesn’t work.”

In other news, the commission:

• They discussed what they could do about the intersection of Country Road 5 and Highway 2. Ed Pavlish, Grand Forks district engineer for the North Dakota Department of Transportation, said almost any option could be considered if there is enough community support.
• The commission gave conditional approval to Ault Construction's bid for the Northwood hangar rehabilitation, subject to the completion of a land sale. The commission accepted liability because Ault, while providing all the tender documents, failed to place its contractor's licence in the correct envelope.
• Approved a plan to simplify speed limits on many county roads to 55 miles per hour, eliminating a tiered system of different speeds for trucks and other vehicles. County Roads 5, 6 and 25 are the ones affected.

Voigt covers government in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.