Oklahoma County eliminates one potential jail site; still considering another despite objections

Oklahoma County commissioners removed land at Stockyards City from its list of potential jail locations at the close of a marathon meeting this week.

But an attempt by Commissioner Carrie Blumert to remove a property the county is considering at 1901 E Grand Blvd. as a jail location failed, even after hours of objections aired by numerous Del City residents, elected local and state leaders, and the area school system's superintendent.

The votes followed the second of two executive sessions, each lasting about two hours, as commissioners debated whether to keep or jettison the two options.

After the first executive session, they told the public that Commissioner Myles Davidson planned to visit with city of Oklahoma City officials to make inquiries about whether they believed its city council would support zoning the Grand Boulevard property for use as a jail.

While near Del City, the property is inside Oklahoma City's city limits.

Did commissioners' decisions this week settle where the new jail in Oklahoma County will be built?

Oklahoma County faces increasing time pressures as it tries to secure land from a willing seller and approval from the city council of Oklahoma City to build a new jail.

So far, Oklahoma County only has offered to buy a piece of property near SW 54 and Newcastle Road from the Oklahoma City Airport Trust for $2.5 million, hoping to build the new jail there.

But the Federal Aviation Administration nixed that plan, saying a jail built on Will Rogers World Airport's north side could prevent the use of future federal funds to expand or improve the facility's operations.

Before moving to strike the Stockyards City area from consideration, Commission Chairman Brian Maughan said he had learned through numerous conversations with area property owners nearly all had no desire to sell their land to Oklahoma County for a jail.

He was joined by Blumert and Davidson to support striking that area from its list of potential locations.

Blumert apologized to a handful of people still at the meeting about Wednesday's lengthy executive sessions, but said state law prevented her from having any discussions outside of those about potential jail locations with her colleagues.

More: Racial disparity persists at Oklahoma County jail despite overall population decrease

"It is what it is," Blumert said.

As for 1901 E Grand, Blumert said she had opposed its selection consistently and promised that would not change. But her motion to remove it from consideration died for lack of a second.

That frustrated Del City resident Ron McCall, who hung around to watch commissioners' actions and then addressed them before the meeting was adjourned.

"Especially today, we have seen a lot of opposition" against putting a jail on Grand, he told them. "I, for one, have yet to see anybody in favor of it, other than maybe the seller.

"Where are they? If there's nobody for it, why don't we drop it?" McCall asked.

Commissioner Maughan said Wednesday he couldn't support eliminating the 1901 E Grand location from consideration unless a better site can be found.

"I have been working for other sites, and ... am trying to get a couple of other property owners to submit before we run out of time. Some might even argue that we already are out of time," Maughan said.

Maughan said commissioners didn't have a proposed location near SW 74 and Rockwell before them Wednesday because the county needs additional information about that property before considering it any further.

"Maybe we will have something for that site next week, and maybe others," Maughan said. "Trust me, this has been way harder than any of us anticipated it would be."

Claudia Browne, a Del City councilmember who had addressed commissioners earlier that day, told them she was confused by previous past votes all three commissioners had made to support removing the Grand Boulevard property as a potential jail location.

Maughan told her he had supported removing it earlier because he believed the county had another suitable location available at the time.

Davidson said he had voted to remove it earlier because he felt like the new jail would be too close to a football field Crooked Oak plans to build. But he told Browne late Wednesday he believed a solution to that issue had been found.

"This is the best site we have in front of us. We are trying to make a decision for over 800,000 citizens," Davidson said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County removes another site from list of jail locations