Listen to this articleStearns County residents will vote this fall on a proposed sales tax to help build a new $325 million jail, courthouse and police center in St. Cloud – an ambitious “justice center” project designed to relieve pressure on existing undersized and aging facilities, including a historic courthouse in downtown St. Cloud built more than 100 years ago.
Given the need, the project will move forward regardless of the outcome of the vote on a 3/8-cent local sales tax, county officials said this week. Financing options include the sales tax, which would cost households about $85 a year, or a property tax of $185 a year, according to county documents.
Although the county has not yet settled on a specific location, county officials say it will be built on a greenfield site in St. Cloud. Still, the site selection — and the potential impact of moving county services out of downtown St. Cloud — was a hot topic at Monday’s St. Cloud City Council meeting.
“I am convinced that the relocation of county services will have a detrimental effect on downtown,” Councilman George Hontos said at the meeting. “And I say that because I have experienced that first hand as a restaurant owner with 18 years of experience downtown, and I have greatly appreciated the number of county employees that have come and supported my business over those years.”
Hontos asked the council for the second year in a row to consider a resolution calling on the county to keep the jail and police center downtown. Hontos said the resolution was necessary because the council has never taken a “formal position” on the issue. However, a motion to put the resolution to a vote was defeated because it did not receive a second vote.
Discussion of the resolution became tense at times. At one point, Hontos accused Mayor Dave Kleis of trying to “hijack” the discussion of the proposed resolution, to which the mayor responded that it was “undemocratic” to vote on a resolution without further discussion, as Hontos had requested.
“How can you make a decision without being informed? I would like everyone who holds an elected office to be informed before making a decision,” Kleis said at the meeting.
The county, for its part, said a greenfield site makes sense because of cost, land availability, impact on neighboring properties and other reasons. For example, the county needs 35 to 60 acres for the new facility, and that much space isn’t available downtown, said Stearns County Executive Mike Williams.
Williams said the county initially considered keeping services downtown, but changed its focus after further research.
“During that planning and design phase, we realized that the project would require us to purchase a large amount of private property downtown, including the entire block west of us and the post office, which would have required literally an act of Congress to acquire. It would also require some street and utility changes and all sorts of things … that would have lengthened the project and increased the cost,” Williams said.
“And in the end we would have a facility that is still on a limited site that does not allow us to grow.”
The project has been in the works for years.
The Stearns County project website states that the current police center, built in 1986, has 97 beds. By 1996, the website states, the jail was “continuously at full capacity, resulting in the establishment of a work release. To increase capacity, the jail began using double-bunk beds in the early 2000s.”
A 2010 study by the law enforcement center “demonstrated the need to prepare for future space needs of the jail and court system,” the county said.
The future of the historic courthouse in downtown St. Cloud, built in 1921, is unclear, but Williams said the building will not be demolished.
The justice center project took a step forward in June when the Stearns County Board of Supervisors voted to move forward with planning for a facility that would include “a 270-bed jail, a police center, the district attorney’s office, a probation and corrections center, courts and 14 courtrooms,” according to county documents.
“We are currently planning a 270-bed jail, significantly larger than the jail we have today … and a larger courthouse with up to 14 courtrooms, where now we only have nine or 10. It’s a very costly project; courts, jails and police centers, as some of you know, are very expensive to build,” Williams said.
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