Article published May 15, 1990

Downtown jail site gets death sentence

The Spartanburg County Council all but eliminated yesterday the possibility of constructing a new county jail in the parking lot next to the existing lockup in downtown Spartanburg, though no vote was taken. Council members asked for more information on financing and operating costs of the jail before authorizing architects to begin drawing construction plans for a new 240-bed jail, which could later be expanded to hold more than 600 inmates.

The decision is expected at the council's May 23 meeting. "I want to find out how we're going to pay for it before I make a decision," Councilman Skip Corn said. "But I don't think (the architects) need to spend a whole lot of time working on the downtown site." Council members cooled on the idea of a high-rise jail next to the County Courthouse after architects presented cost estimates that showed it would cost about $800,000 more to build and about $300,000 more per year to operate than an alternate proposal. Most of that additional cost would be in salaries for the 15 additional officers it will take to staff the jail. The downtown jail plans also included a $2.6 million cost of renovating the existing jail to meet Department of Corrections standards. The additional costs outweigh the estimated $600,000 it will cost to buy a 40-acre site for the jail.

Council members have discussed three alternative sites in earlier closed-door meetings, but they have not disclosed the locations, fearing it might drive prices up. Building a jail on one of those sites will cost $12.9 million, architects estimate. In addition to the construction and the land purchase costs, the council also faces:

• a $916,000 bill for renovating a warehouse into temporary jail cells to relieve jail overcrowding,
• a $3.8 million jail expansion that will be needed in about 10 years,
• $90,500 needed to renovate a section of the existing county jail as a courthouse holding cell,
• and about $2 million to pay for additional employees and vehicles that will be needed to operate the new jail over the next 10 years.

With inflation, the project is expected to cost the county more than $17.1 million in capital and added operating costs by the year 2000, according to a team of architects from Henningson, Durham and Richardson of Dallas and McMillin and Satterfield of Spartanburg. About $2.2 million of the costs - which includes renovating the former Sullivan Hardware Building to temporarily relieve jail overcrowding, land purchase and architects' fees - is expected to be funded through a bond issue pending before the council. County Administrator Roland Windham said the remaining costs will likely be financed through subsequent bond issues, but he plans to present other methods of raising the money at the May 23 meeting.