The biggest question has been settled. Starting this fall, Clay County will begin replacing Minnesota’s oldest jail with a larger, more efficient correctional facility. Site work is expected to begin this fall, with construction starting next spring and completion slated for 2018.
“We have no choice,” says Clay County Commissioner Kevin Campbell, who chairs the board’s jail and joint law enforcement center construction and finance committees. “We’re running way over capacity right now, and the State Department of Corrections will no longer license us even to the current level if nothing is done.”
Commissioners have been making plans to replace the deteriorating Joint Law Enforcement Center west of the Clay County Courthouse for more than a decade. All parties agree it’s time, and past time, to move forward – the County Commission and Moorhead City Council, the Clay County Sheriff, the Moorhead Police and even the Moorhead Business Association.
Only one question – and it’s a big one – remains to be settled: How will the bills be paid?
That’s what the commission passed a resolution last month to put a possible solution on the Nov. 8 election ballot. Clay County voters will be asked to approvea solution that, so far, has garnered praise from a good cross-section of residents — a half-cent county-wide sales tax. If passed, the 20-year levy would begin in 2017. It’s projected to bring in an estimated $1.6 million per year.
“It comes down to the sales tax or a county-wide increase in property taxes,” county commissioner Grant Weyland points out. “We’ve looked at every possible option that would avoid increasing property taxes, and we’ve talked to people all over the country. Almost 100 percent have said they’d take the sales tax.”
A half-cent increase amounts to 50 cents on a $100 purchase. If approved, the measure would raise the level of sales tax in Moorhead, Barnesville and the rest of the county to 7.385 percent – slightly lower than the present Fargo-Cass County combined tax of 7.5 percent. Clothing, groceries and certain other items would continue to be exempt from Minnesota’s sales tax, as well as the new county levy.
Work will begin on the new correctional center early next year, after the site directly south of the current Joint Law Enforcement Center is prepared this fall. By mid-year, ground will be broken for the second half of the project, the new joint law enforcement center slated for north of the Clay County Courthouse.
The building which both the jail and law enforcement headquarters occupy is generally conceded to be out of date, out of shape and far too small for the populations it holds. “We’ve known ever since I served as Moorhead’s chief of police that we badly needed to do something about the present building,” Weyland says.
The county’s prisoner population consistently exceeds the capacity of the jail. While about 60 remain in Moorhead, an average of 45 to 50 per day – the record is 64 – must be transported and housed in leased space in Crookston, Alexandria and Breckenridge jails. Clay County pays all costs for their confinement, as well as travel to and from the facilities. It now amounts to about $1 million per year.
“We have to meet Department of Corrections standards. We have no choice in the matter,” notes Moorhead council member Mike Hulett, who represents the city on the joint task force.
Police Chief David Ebinger notes that the 50-year-old jail, Minnesota’s oldest, can’t be adapted to meet modern standards for incarceration. He explains that the changing character of the jail population includes far more individuals with mental health problems, as well as another group with other undiagnosed personality behavioral issues – two categories that at times account for 80 percent of the jail’s residents. “Our new Behavioral Health Unit will segregate people who come in to us in crisis,” he explains. “After we catch them, we have to figure out what to do with them. They’re only with us for a relatively short time. When we send them back out, we’d like them to be on the road to rehabilitation.”
The behavioral health area will provide a quiet, calming environment, as well as meeting rooms for groups like AA and the Clay County Jail Ministry and areas for therapy and other services. “It won’t be posh. Our goal is ‘adequate,’ meeting the state’s very specific requirements,” county administrator Brian Berg comments.
Along with the new correctional center, designed to initially accommodate 208 “guests,” the county plans to replace the current Joint Law Enforcement Center with a facility nearly double its size. The Clay County Sheriff’s Department and Moorhead Police will share quarters there, as they do now in a dilapidated building half its size. The planned facility will also provide space for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Highway Patrol.
“One hundred twenty law officers are housed in our building right now. Every inch of space is full,” Ebinger says. He points out that this not only makes for difficult working conditions for officers, staff and the public; it also complicates adoption of law enforcement tools that didn’t exist back in 1966, like the networked computers that drive much of modern policing. Evidence collection and storage areas, too, are beyond capacity and lack critical climate controls.
The county board has long considered ways of funding the jail and law enforcement center, estimated to cost $32.5 million and $14.5 million respectively.
“We’ve looked at a number of sources of funding,” Campbell reports. Among elements already budgeted are the county’s share of the state wind energy tax, which brings in about $150,000 per year; and issuing future bonds as the county’s current debt is retired over coming years. The board began allocations from its budget with $50,000 set aside in 2014; that figure will rise $50,000 annually in years to come.
Lease income from the Moorhead Police Department and other tenants will also help generate both operating and capital improvement funds. The county board also approached the Minnesota Legislature twice about partnering with local government via an appropriation of about $15 million, but it failed to gain enough support.
“We’ve looked at every possible option for financing this without affecting property taxes in Clay County,” Weyland says. “When we talk to the community, almost 100 percent say they’d take the sales tax over what would be a pretty substantial increase in property taxes.”
Hulett adds, “The correctional center meets a pressing regional need. Thirty percent of our inmates have North Dakota addresses, and we’re part of a metropolitan area with a population of 226,000.”
Campbell points out that Cass County used the same sales-tax approach for financing its jail 15 years ago. “We believe that to stay economically competitive, the sales tax on this fall’s ballot is the better option. If passed, our sales tax will still be less than Fargo and Cass County’s. It will also mean that others outside of Clay County will help pay for it.
“We’re going to let the people decide.”
More information on the new Clay County correctional facility and joint law enforcement center, including a site plan and project overview, is available online at http://claycountymn.gov/1380/New-Correctional-Facility-Law-Enforcement.
