Work to start on jail improvements
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The owners of the land, Doug Smith and two of his sisters, Elaine Simmons of Oak Ridge, and Kaye Clement of McMinnville, are reportedly not going to contest the condemnation of the five acres needed for expansion, which allows the county to start preparing the site for construction.
As of Tuesday, Cox was waiting for official confirmation from County Attorney Larry Stanley on the Smith family’s decision, though the consensus was they would not contest the condemnation.
“If they don’t contest the condemnation, that means they are not contesting the county’s right to take the property,” Cox said. “They have the right to contest two things, and that’s one of them. The other one is the price of the property, and that would have to be settled in the courts.
“The only thing they are going to tell us today is that they are not going to contest our right to take the property, so we can go to work,” continued Cox. “But at some later point, they may contest the price. When we filed the condemnation we paid in the $75,000 for the five acres. If they contest that, then we will go before a jury and they will decide whether the land is worth that. They may decide it’s worth more than that, or they may decide it’s worth less than that.”
The $15,000 price per acre for the five acres was based on three different appraisals commissioned by the county, plus 20 percent added for good faith. The county had originally made offers on the five acres and for the entire 19 acres the Smiths own.
The Smiths then countered the county’s offer saying they wanted $95,000 per acre for the land, which prompted the county’s condemnation proceedings.
Meanwhile, architect Jim Armstrong has turned in preliminary plans to the Oversight Committee, and provided the Southern Standard with an artist’s rendering of how the finished project should look.
The expansion will add approximately 28,000 square feet to the 13,800 in the current facility, increasing the floor space to around 41,800 square feet, total.
The Jail Oversight Committee will begin collecting information on contractors, post an announcement in the newspaper, and should be ready to begin taking bids in mid-August.
Committee Chairman Bobby Cox has also been working with state Sen. Jerry Cooper and local and state officials of the Warren County/McMinnville National Guard Armory who have tentatively agreed to allow the jail project easement to build a road across their property. This easement will save the county considerable inconvenience and expense. Official approval from the armory should be forthcoming shortly, according to Cox, who pointed out how much the county appreciates that cooperation.