BEMIDJI — The Beltrami County Board of Commissioners reviewed its options for the 242-bed correctional facility planned to replace the current Beltrami County Jail.
After announcing a site in a residential neighborhood in May, and the local planning and zoning board issuing a moratorium on jails in residential zones. Commissioners recently announced a new site in Bemidji’s industrial park and discussed the plan during a Tuesday, Sept. 19, meeting.
Site analysis is currently underway at the donated property, which is expected to be complete in October.
In 2019, the Minnesota Department of Corrections ordered Beltrami County to invest in a long-term solution for increasing local crime rates and deteriorating conditions of the current jail. Three inmate deaths occurred in the facility between 2016-18.
Beltrami County received a reduced capacity order in January 2023, requiring a significant increase in out-of-county placement costs for inmates. The county anticipates spending $1.2 million per year on out-of-county placements until the new jail is completed.
Beltrami County expects to place a local option sales tax on ballots this November to fund the estimated $60 to 80 million project, the commissioners are deliberating numerous options for where to go from here with the design of the facility.
“As we all know, and we're all watching the news, all we hear is inflation. We see it in real time in our lives,” said Ben Matson, project supervisor with the company Construction Engineers.
“If we assume we're going to be looking at 4% inflation continuing forward on $80 million, that's $3.2 million per year in inflation that we could see added to this project. That's $266,000 per month.”
Matson presented four scenarios: to wait until a possible repeat of a 2024 local option sales tax request should it fail this year, which could possibly extend the new jail’s completion date to 2028, and other scenarios that include portioning out the project in smaller bids to beat inflation costs.
"As we all know, as we're all watching the news, all we hear about is inflation. We see it in real time in our lives."Ben Matson, jail project manager
"We can take some action that way, and then another thing to consider further down the road, would be some early bid packages where you have portions of the building before you have a completed design,” Matson said.
Klein McCarthy Architects — which had a hand in the designs of the new Carlton and Itasca County jails — is working with Matson for the pre-design. There would be additional costs for each design schematic should Beltrami County decide to portion out the project.
“It seems like because of the generosity of the Fankhanel family (who donated the property), that maybe we could take advantage of some significant cost savings down the road by advancing that schematic design at this time,” Commissioner John Carlson said.
County Administrator Tom Barry said staff reviewed potential design costs earlier this year, and the costs presented by Matson are well within budget at $900,000, or half that if the referendum fails. The money would come from a reserve fund set aside for situations like these, he said.
No action was taken during the regular meeting of the County Board on Sept. 19, with a decision expected during the next board meeting Oct. 3.
