The building will be attached to the county’s Adult Detention Center and will include constructing the sheriff’s administration offices and the coroner’s office. Both offices will be connected to the Adult Detention Center, and with a 250-bed jail immediately to the east.
The Greene County jail project has been years in the making, as officials have long wanted to replace their aging jail on Market Street. Built in 1969, the facility has been under a consent decree since 1989, which limits the jail population due to the decrepit state of the building.
The county previously delayed construction on the jail, as state grant money prompted the county to revisit previous reductions in scope. Because of spiking construction costs, the county was faced with only building the jail, County Administrator Brandon Huddleson said.
“The grant money was really impactful,” he said.
The total cost of the project on Greene Way Boulevard comes from the $15 million state grant, $30 million in sales tax-funded bonds, $10 million in revenue replacement from the American Rescue Plan Act, and $20 million in cash from the county’s general fund.
With the $15 million from the state, the county is able to build the majority of what was originally planned, albeit for nearly twice as much as its pre-COVID price tag of $40 million.
The new jail was designed by Newark, Ohio-based firm Wachtel & McAnally, which has built jails in 33 Ohio counties.
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