A rendering of the proposed design for a new jail in Wood County given by the Jail Study Ad Hoc Committee. (Photo courtesy of Wood County).
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI (WSAU) — An informal presentation was given on Wednesday night about a proposed jail project in Central Wisconsin.
Members of Wood County’s Jail Study Ad Hoc Committee gave a presentation Wednesday evening at Wisconsin Rapids Area Middle School. The presentation went over the Ad Hoc Committee’s findings over the past 6 months regarding building a new jail in Wood County.
The presentation was mainly led by Committee Chair and Wood County Board Supervisor Laura Valenstein. She began the presentation by going over the 5 concerns the County has with the current jail and its long-term future. Those concerns include an outdated and unsafe configuration, a lack of capacity, high out-of-county housing costs, the rising insurance costs for an older building, and a lack of programming space for rehabilitation classes and programs.
Valenstein explained the Committee’s proposed jail design after going over the concerns with the current jail facility. “We are proposing a 225-bed jail with the ability to double up to 85% of the bunks. It will include a new Sheriff’s Department [space] and also includes the demo of the existing jail structure. And or shelling out the existing jail structure. leaving it available for future building projects.
“It does not require any residential land acquisition, which was very important for us. And it does require the vacation acquisition of Avon Street, which is the street that’s right between both properties there,”.
The presentation also emphasized that if Wood County did not build a new jail soon, it would likely cost the county far more to keep renovating the current space as opposed to building a new jail facility. The current annual operating cost of the jail is $4,100,000 while the proposed new jail facility’s annual operating cost would be $3,514,100, a difference of almost $600,000 per year.
The financing plan for the project the Committee has selected would have only a slight impact on resident’s property taxes. Justin Fischer with Baird Financial explains how the jail project would affect resident’s mill rates over the next six years. “The strategic goal here was to try to keep the maximum tax impact to 30 cents in 2022 and an additional 5 cents by 2024. So a total tax impact of 35 cents.
“Then at the same time in 2027 we’re strategically having the tax rate drop by on average about 5 cents per year to account for a hypothetical future borrowings starting in 2026 and thereafter. So this plan not only looks at now but it also factors in what potentially could happen into the future,”.
Other financial plans for the jail project include using local banks in the bonding issuance process and local contractors in the construction process. The Ad Hoc Committee’s plan hopes to keep most if not all of the money used on the project within Wood County.
The overall recommendation of the Jail Study Ad Hoc Committee is to have the county bond for $58 million to build a new jail to reduce recidivism, increase community safety, and reduce long-term costs while improving the health and well-being of the community. The recommendation also plans for the jail project to be bid out for construction in the spring of 2022.
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