Commissioners identify new site for Monroe County jail. Here's what we know

County commissioners are exploring an area northwest of Bloomington for a new county jail.

Monroe County Commissioners President Julie Thomas said Tuesday evening the county is now looking at North Park, an area northwest of the intersection of Interstate 69 and the Ind. 45/46 Bypass.

County attorney Jeff Cockerill said he did not yet have permission from the owner to reveal the exact location, but North Park consists of multiple mostly vacant properties owned by construction company Crider & Crider along Ind. 46 and Hunter Valley Road. Crider owns the properties through a limited liability company called Logan Land Development.

Cockerill said a lot of matters, including facility size, suitability of the location and environmental review, have yet to be addressed. The community hasn't weighed in, and the county has to determine whether to build space near the new facility for related county offices, including the sheriff, 10 courts, the prosecutor's office, the public defender's office and the probation department.

The county previously estimated a 400-bed facility would cost around $75 million, Cockerill said. Last year the current jail had an average population of 160 inmates. The current jail's capacity is 294. The county would have to borrow the money and pay it back through existing or new tax revenue.

Under ideal circumstances, Cockerill said, construction of a new jail at the North Park site could begin in spring 2025, with completion in two years.

That would be 12 to 18 months sooner than the project could be completed at the commissioners’ previously preferred location, the former Thomson site, where the county owns 80 acres.

Commissioners purchased that site more than 20 years ago for $1.27 million with plans to build a juvenile detention and treatment facility there, according to H-T archives. In 2008, it was considered for a jail that's been talked about since.

However, the commissioners told county council members Tuesday the site is no longer viable for the new jail, in part because of opposition from neighbors.

Commissioner Lee Jones also said Duke Energy would have had to move a portion of a high voltage line that crosses the property. That relocation would have taken at least two years and cost at least $1 million.

Thomas said the North Park site provides better access, won’t require utility relocation and, if the county can acquire it, would allow the commissioners to move forward “relatively quickly.”

Jones and Thomas emphasized time is of the essence, as repair and maintenance costs related to the current jail continue to rise, never mind that jail staff and inmates will have to continue to work and live in a facility that has long exceeded its usefulness.

“There is a human cost to delaying the project that cannot be ignored,” Thomas said.

Jones said the current building’s elevator, which moves people between the courtrooms and the jail, may need to be replaced soon, at a cost of up to $500,000.

Phil Parker, chief deputy sheriff, said Tuesday, "There are things that happen in that facility that keep pointing us to the need to move forward with this new facility."

He said jail staff recently removed more than 2 pounds of hair that had accumulated in the cast iron shower drains. To remove those drains, workers have to break up the concrete floor. He also said an 8-inch sewer main had failed twice in the last month. During one of those failures, “a fair amount” of sewage spilled into the sheriff’s department administrative offices.

“This is the state of the building … that we continue to fight almost every single day,” Parker said.

For more than a decade, county officials have discussed refurbishing the existing facility or building a new one. However, despite convening committees and being under pressure from a class action lawsuit, officials have failed to make any meaningful progress.

'Paralyzed': ACLU lawyer Falk tells Monroe County jail committee 15 years is long enough

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a former inmate, cited unconstitutional conditions at the jail. The suit was settled in December 2009 with a population cap.

Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Monroe County eyes land off I69 for potential jail location