More meetings to flesh out details are forthcoming, but Portage County officials took the next step in moving forward a $76 million plan for a new government center.

Space and Properties Committee members agreed 4-1 in a special meeting Tuesday, May 24, that the existing space needs in the Portage County Law Enforcement Center and existing County-City Building should be addressed with a one-project, $76.25 million building plan. A resolution depicting the decision, and why, will be presented at the committee’s next meeting, June 7. A process and timeline for moving forward is expected then as well.

Committee members Jeanne Dodge, Tom Mallison, Jerry Walters and Don Jankowski approved moving the plan forward. Committee member David Medin opposed, saying he would not attach his name to a plan until he had more information on finances, specifically the impact to the taxpayers.

The $76.25 million plan chosen entails $74.9 million to construct a three-story, 270,000-square-foot building attached to the County Annex, and repurpose the County-City Building in some way. Repurposing does not have a dollar amount attached to it, as that is unknown at this point, Cain said. The Ellis Street and LEC building demolition cost is $1.3 million of the total.

During the 90-minute special meeting, committee members and about 15 others listened to a historical review from John Cain, architect with Venture Architects, fielded questions and requested clarifications from the Sheriff’s Department, county administration, and requested Cain update the estimated construction costs to be more accurate (they are about a year old).

Much of the discussion surrounded safety concerns in the jail and the courts, and financial impact of the proposed four options facing the committee also were considered when Cain said the longer the committee waits, the higher the cost goes due to inflation.

The four options ranged in estimated costs from the chosen option at $76 million to a two-part phase that had a first-phase price of $30.7 million for a new two-story courthouse building attached to the existing annex, and essential remodeling to the existing County-City Building and Sheriff’s Department. The second phase was proposed to be constructed about 10 years later and included a new two-story jail and Sheriff’s Department, additional upgrades to the existing County-City Building and demolition of the 1039 Ellis St. and existing Law Enforcement Center buildings. The total for the two-phase project came in at $93.3 million.

Walters said he was in favor of building all at once because of the security issues at both the courthouse and the jail.

“(Otherwise) we’re asking our jail to … take the risk for the next 10 years while the courts are safe, and I don’t know that that’s appropriate,” he said.

Jankowski agreed, saying, “I think we’re blinding ourselves if we don’t think we can go forward with the whole project … there are many things out there that are hazards for this county.”

Chief Deputy Sheriff Dan Kontos said the department is not relying on luck.

“The shortcomings have been made known time and time again,” he said. “The jail is overcrowded, it is unsafe for the inmates and the (staff) who work there. It’s a tough job.

“Our position is pretty clear, we have a mission to accomplish and we will do it to the best of our ability with what is provided to us,” he said.

The county currently pays Waupaca County $32 a day for use of up to 35 beds in its jail. With transportation, the county spends about $800,000 a year total for transporting and housing prisoners in the neighboring county, Kontos said.

Since 1999, when the county first had a report from Kimme suggesting the need for a 200-bed jail, Portage County has spent about $9 million in transportation and housing of inmates to other counties.

Medin questioned the validity of finances presented by Cain, saying the committee should be using numbers projected with inflation for the year in which the construction would start. The proposed cost if the county waited until 2019, Cain said, for example, the same plan would cost about $83.3 million.

Figures for the increased tax rate should also be determined and made public, Medin said.

Finance Director Jennifer Jossie was not present for that discussion but has said that once an option was decided upon, the Finance Department would look at a variety of ways to fund it, including different debt schedules so not all the money would be borrowed at once, and the hit to the taxpayers throughout the duration of the bond would be more stable.

Those numbers also will be forthcoming in future meetings.

Initial operating costs identified for the option chosen include 11 to 12 additional full-time staff, a county-city lease and utilities between $646,239 and $724,048, but those figures may change as well, Cain has said.