Ada County Commissioners are considering spending $13.3 million to renovate the kitchen at the Ada County Jail and begin preparations on the land next to the jail for future large-scale expansion.
Sheriff Matt Clifford and others in the department met Wednesday with county leadership to pitch the idea. Funding would come from $20 million already set aside for jail expansion, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
Voters in November narrowly defeated a $49 million bond that would have funded a full expansion of the county jail, adding nearly 300 beds and expanding operational infrastructure which was last updated in the mid-1990s.
More than half of the current proposal would go toward adding utilities and other groundwork to the land the county already owns and expects to be able to expand onto at some point in the future. That work would also include a new access road from Allenbaugh Street.
During the push to educate the public prior to the bond vote, the Sheriff barnstormed across the county explaining the jail has not kept up with the population change, and regularly runs at or over capacity.
The cramped kitchen is the most pressing issue, the Sheriff says, because it produces about twice the meals per day that it's designed for.
Kitchen renovations, including temporary and related infrastructure would cost $3.7 million, and an additional $2 million dollars would fund overhead costs like insurance and planning, according to the Sheriff’s department.
Getting started on those projects now buys time for the county to figure out how to fund the large-scale jail expansion it says it needs to serve the growing community.
Commissioners did not commit to a timeline for a decision, but could make a decision on the proposal "soon," according to a spokesman at the Sheriff's office.
