Pueblo County breaks ground on new jail, announces name of boulevard extension
Pueblo County leaders celebrated the groundbreaking of a new jail Wednesday and unveiled the name of the Joe Martinez Boulevard extension nestled in the still-undeveloped rolling hills between the city of Pueblo and Pueblo West.
“(Jails) aren’t sexy, but they're very much the foundation of the criminal justice system. If you don't have a place to incarcerate individuals who make our community unsafe, then you really have no public safety,” Sheriff Kirk Taylor told reporters before a group of officials lined up with superfluous hard hats and gold-plated souvenir shovels engraved with the date of the groundbreaking.
The two projects will take approximately two years to build — Taylor estimated that the jail is expected to open in early 2025.
Officials said that the new detention campus could be the first net-zero emission jail in the country.
The boulevard extension connecting Pueblo West with the city will be named Medal of Honor Boulevard. The roadway could be constructed with recycled plastic bags, which the county is testing out on Siloam Road in collaboration with Ecologic Materials Corporation.
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The new roadway will be a major connector between Pueblo West and the city of Pueblo, extending from Purcell Boulevard to the intersection of Pueblo Boulevard and 24th Street. The city recently received a grant from federal infrastructure legislation that includes $6.7 million to design an extension of 24th Street across railroad tracks.
Media and invited guests gathered at the site Wednesday while the event was livestreamed to members of the public who gathered to watch at the Pueblo Convention Center.
Why is a new jail needed?
The current county jail located downtown is 42 years old and "the infrastructure in the existing tower is absolutely shot,” Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz said.
Officials previously explored rehabilitating the building but determined that a new facility would need to be constructed.
Also, the current jail is too small. According to quarterly data reported to the state, Pueblo County has consistently been detaining more inmates than it has beds. The jail's current capacity is 509 inmates.
Taylor said the exact number of beds for the new facility has not yet been determined but will likely number approximately 650-700. The new building also has more room to expand in the future if necessary.
How the projects are funded
Ortiz estimated that constructing the new jail will cost approximately $140 million.
Voters had previously rejected multiple ballot questions about raising taxes to pay for the new facility, but the county is leveraging revenue from a 2019 ballot measure to increase retail marijuana taxes to take out a 30-year, $125 million bond-adjacent certificate of participation.
Local governments in Colorado often use certificates of participation to fund projects, Ortiz said, as the 1992 Taxpayer Bill of Rights restricted how the government can borrow money.
The remaining $15 million has been “cobbled” together from other funding sources, Ortiz said.
Creating the boulevard and the ongoing growth of the Pueblo metropolitan area is expected to raise additional tax revenue by spurring economic development in the area, Ortiz said.
“We're not counting or relying on that money for this debt issuance, that is just going to help us further develop the area and possibly pay some of those bonds back early,” Ortiz said.
Extending Joe Martinez Boulevard as Medal of Honor Boulevard will cost another $40 million. Some funding for this part of the plan is sourced from the 1A ballot measure passed in 2016, but the new roadway will require additional funding.
What will happen with the current facility?
Ortiz said that the jail tower will likely be demolished for parking lots. The future use of the dormitory portion of the building has not yet been decided but could be converted into a mental health and treatment facility.
“We are being certainly embattled by a terrible opioid crisis nationally, and we are not immune to that in our community,” Ortiz said. He cited some major settlement funding coming to Colorado and trickling down to local jurisdictions that could help fund programming and converting the facility.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo County leaders break ground on new jail, boulevard extension
