Time to find a home for new Escambia jail?
- June 8, 2015
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / government
For the time being, the new Escambia County Jail is homeless.
Some clarity may come from the June 11 Escambia County Commissioners committee of the whole meeting, where the topic is set to come up again.
It will cost $161 million to build a new jail that complies with current standards and has 1,476 beds, large enough to replace Central Booking and the current jail.
That does not include site acquisition costs or the cost of housing inmates out of county — now set at $2.7 million a year.
Discussions about where to build a new jail have stalled. In May, commissioners got a jail update that gave several of them sticker-shock.
— They learned the county’s insurance company would not pay out on the all-peril policy for damage to Central Booking. That policy had a maximum value of $45 million.
— The county’s $25 million flood insurance policy will be paid out, but that money is meant for all county properties damaged in the flood not just Central Booking.
— County budget director Amy Lovoy said there was an $8 million local option sales tax project pledged to main jail renovations, but that project was placed on hold when Central Booking was damaged. That money could be reallocated toward the construction of a new jail.
— Building a new Central Booking-sized building – with roughly 697 beds — would cost $77 million. Building it in the same, flood-prone location would have to be done to the 500-year flood event standard.
Doing that, Blackmon says, would put everything in the surrounding area — including the roads — under water.
— The building that was used as Central Booking was not originally intended to be a jail. It was built as a hospital building and was in many ways not well suited to the purpose it ended up being used for. Moving the laundry, kitchen and other building operations pieces that were in the basement to the first floor would require an 8,000 square foot addition to the footprint the building has now.
The price tag for that addition is $9 million, county staff said.
“You’ve got an old jail that needs $30 million in repairs. A 50-year-old ex-hospital can’t have a lot of future left to it,” said Commissioner Wilson Robertson. “Our goal ought to be to have a piece of land that could accommodate a campus type of space that could house probation, inmates and all related issues.”
Blackmon said if she could use the site where Central Booking is now entirely for stormwater issues, and the new jail facility were built elsewhere, she believes flooding problems that the area sees now could be dealt with — and possibly more.
“Everything in that area is nearly resolved,” she said.
Where could a new jail go?
There is a short list of possible sites for a new jail.
— Property that used to house Southern Prestressed Concrete at Airport Boulevard and Old Palafox near Car City. It was appraised at $3 million.
— The McDonald property, appraised at $3,010,000. It includes the southwest corner of Pace and Fairfield where there is a shopping center and vacant property behind it. Lovoy said the owners want $10.2 million. The county would not legally be permitted to spend that much more than the appraised value for a property.
— The former Escambia Treating Superfund site, which has been remediated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. No appraisal has been done, but the EPA and Florida DEP are open to transferring the property to the county at no cost. The county would have to pay $50,000 annually in maintenance.
— Property north of the Superfund site, formerly the Florida Drum Company property, appraised at $3.5 million.
In May, three commissioners were clearly turned off of the Superfund property.
“I will not support and I wish we would drop the Superfund site from consideration,” Robertson said. “There is no way I am never going to support putting it there. That stuff just got covered; it didn’t get removed.”
Commissioner Grover Robinson IV noted, “the irony of this is there’s a stigma of it being called the Superfund site. It might be the cleanest of the properties we’re considering.”
Preliminary reports from county environmental staff note that the Superfund site is cleaned and capped to EPA standards. Underground storage tanks, aboveground storage tanks and hydraulic lifts were present on the old concrete plant site.
Underground storage tanks and solvents were detected in the area near the McDonald property.
— Property that used to house Southern Prestressed Concrete at Airport Boulevard and Old Palafox near Car City. It was appraised at $3 million.
— The McDonald property, appraised at $3,010,000. It includes the southwest corner of Pace and Fairfield where there is a shopping center and vacant property behind it. Lovoy said the owners want $10.2 million. The county would not legally be permitted to spend that much more than the appraised value for a property.
— The former Escambia Treating Superfund site, which has been remediated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. No appraisal has been done, but the EPA and Florida DEP are open to transferring the property to the county at no cost. The county would have to pay $50,000 annually in maintenance.
— Property north of the Superfund site, formerly the Florida Drum Company property, appraised at $3.5 million.
In May, three commissioners were clearly turned off of the Superfund property.
“I will not support and I wish we would drop the Superfund site from consideration,” Robertson said. “There is no way I am never going to support putting it there. That stuff just got covered; it didn’t get removed.”
Commissioner Grover Robinson IV noted, “the irony of this is there’s a stigma of it being called the Superfund site. It might be the cleanest of the properties we’re considering.”
Preliminary reports from county environmental staff note that the Superfund site is cleaned and capped to EPA standards. Underground storage tanks, aboveground storage tanks and hydraulic lifts were present on the old concrete plant site.
Underground storage tanks and solvents were detected in the area near the McDonald property.
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