Pierce County (WQOW)- As the jail and courthouse project continues in Eau Claire County, another county says it may be time to do the same.
Pierce County is looking into building a new justice center. The county already ships inmates to Dunn and Pepin Counties because it doesn't have room. The sheriff says space isn't the only issue.
"This building was built in the 1960's," points out Pierce County Sheriff Nancy Hove. "It was not meant to make it this long and we are having a lot of structural problems that we need to deal with."
Hove says there are concerns about plumbing, overcrowding, security for public records; and the list goes on.
"Our library is in the hallway. It's not even in its own room," Hove explains. "Hubers, we don't have a room for them to always change in so sometimes it's behind a curtain in the hallway."
Hove says her county has four options moving forward. The first would be to ship inmates to neighboring counties. The second would be to remodel the current jail. The third option would include building an entirely new justice center that would house not only a courthouse, but law enforcement and also a new jail. And the fourth option would be to do all of that but without the courthouse.
So what about cost? The county says building a new justice center with a jail, sheriff's department and courthouse would cost it roughly $38 million. And building a new sheriff's department and jail, but leaving out the courthouse would still cost it somewhere between $20-30 million.
"Nobody wants to put the money out there," Hove relents. "I don't think there's a county board that would say ‘You know what, I want to pay higher taxes.' I would have to agree. I mean, I don't want my taxes to go up either. But there is a point where we have to consider the safety of the workers and the safety of people we hold in the jail."
Hove says they're in the very early stages of looking into this. There is no timetable on when a final decision would be made. The jail can only house up to 29 inmates. Hove says on a typical day, Pierce County would need enough space to house 45 to 60 without shipping any inmates to other counties.
