The price tag for replacing the Central Booking Detention facility is in — and it is big.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday in board chambers on the first floor of the Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building on Palafox Street, Escambia commissioners will hear an update on considerations for replacing Central Booking, which was rendered unusable after a natural gas explosion ripped through the building on April 30.

According to the agenda, two options under consideration would be:

— A 697-bed replacement for Central Booking.  The estimated cost of that is $76.9 million not including the cost of housing inmates out-of-county or site acquisition, should a new location be desired. The kitchen, laundry, infirmary, administration and security areas would be desgined to accommodate growth.

The timeline for that project is estimated at three years.

— A 1,476-bed replacement for the main jail and central booking combined. The cost of that is estimated at $161 million not including site acquisition or out-of-county inmate housing. The timeline for that is three years, three months.

The explosion at central booking, on the heels of historic rainfall that flooded the basement of the facility that housed some 607 people at the time, killed two inmates, paralyzed a corrections officer and injured 184 people.

The State Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are investigating the cause of the explosion.

Upgrades to Central Booking were in the current iteration of the local option sales tax project wish list for incremental upgrades.

Central Booking flooded in 2012 after a big rain as well. Escambia Sheriff David Morgan warned county commissioners after that event that future damage and potentially dire consequences could result if critical equipment was not moved out of the basement of Central Booking.

The insured value of the Central Booking building is up to $45 million for the physical structure and up to $25 million in flood insurance coverage, county officials have reported.

County officials are pursuing using Federal Emergency Management Agency money to help fund the replacement project.

Female inmates are being housed in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, which charges Escambia County per person per day. Male inmates are being housed in the main jail, road prison in Cantonment or in the work-release center on Fairfield Drive.

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