By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

A committee studying options for a new county jail and courthouse hopes to present a site plan for County Commission action by mid-August.

“I'm getting excited about the potential to get this project built,” said Commissioner Greg Dunn during a meeting of the jail committee last week.

Dunn and Commissioner Herb Frady are the jail committee, along with county manager Billy Beckett, county attorney Bill McNally, Sheriff Randall Johnson, jail manager Maj. Robert Glaze and consultant Jim Mallett.

Committee members had agreed on a site plan last week, but County Commission Chairman Harold Bost submitted an additional proposal that consultant Mallett will put on paper for the group's review today.

The new concept submitted by Bost is a radical departure from previous ideas discussed by the committee, and members said it's unlikely that they'll make such a sharp U-turn this late in their discussions.

“You could come up with 4,000 different plans for this,” said Frady. “Yes, you could plan it to death,” agreed Mallett.

But the group asked Mallett to have a drawing of the new proposal ready for today's meeting so they can consider it before deciding. If committee members decide to recommend the currently most popular plan to county commissioners, the only point of non-agreement will be parking. Some committee members favor building a multi-story parking deck instead of a traditional parking lot, but Dunn is opposed to that idea because of the cost.

“It will add about $7 million to the project,” he said. “We're asking the people for an awful lot of money here, and I don't think we need a parking deck right now.”

Frady disagreed, saying a parking deck is the only aspect of the plan that would actually pay for itself, through parking fees. And it would reduce the amount of space taken up by paving, he said, adding that more recent estimates put the cost at $5.7 million

Mallett will draw the proposed site plan for presentation to the commission with and without a parking deck.

Unless committee members change their minds today, the recommended site plan will include adding onto the current jail, using the current courthouse as an administrative office for the jail and Sheriff's Department, and building a new courthouse/judicial building within walking distance of the jail and sheriff's complex.

The county recently purchased additional land near the current complex to combine that site with a 33-acre site the county already had set aside for the project, creating a much bigger 66-acre site that will accommodate the jail/judicial project as well as a future new administrative building for the county, and a new home for Fayette Senior Services.

The jail addition and renovations would cost an estimated $28.7 million, the courthouse about $23.6 million, not including parking.