Fayette

County has spent $1.4 million in hopes of saving

millions more on its plans for a new jail and

judicial complex.

The

county has just completed purchase of seven

parcels of property, about 21 acres in all,

tieing the 13-acre existing jail/courthouse

complex with the 33-acre planned future site,

creating a new 67-acre parcel that will be big

enough to hold not only the jail and courthouse,

but also a future administrative complex.

"Over

the lifetime of this project, we're going to save

several million dollars," said county

Commissioner Greg Dunn, who helped negotiate the

purchases as a member of the law enforcement

committee. "Now we can use the old jail and

the old courthouse rather than building

completely new buildings," he said.

When

Dunn joined the County Commission in January,

plans were already in place to build a new jail

and judicial complex on the 33-acre site, on Lee

Street just south of the current site. The

current jail facility was built in pods so that

it could be expanded, but there wasn't enough

land available, consultants said.

The

lack of land and the need to keep the jail near

the courthouse for ease of transporting prisoners

to court drove earlier decisions to build a new

complex and tear down the old buildings.

"When

I looked at an aerial view of the property, it

became clear that if we owned these four houses

on Long Avenue it would allow us to use the old

jail rather than get rid of it," Dunn said.

And it would provide room for a future new

administrative complex, he said.

"We're

maxed out here," Dunn said of the current

County Administrative Complex in the former

Stonewall Village. "There's nothing more we

can do to expand here." It will be several

years before county offices outgrow the facility,

but when that time comes, it will be much less

expensive to build on the site of the

jail/judicial complex than to go shopping for

property, Dunn said.

County

officials began quietly negotiating to buy the

four houses, a little over four acres in all.

As

a committee of Sheriff's Department and county

officials began to discuss potential designs for

a "county campus," the need for more

property purchases became obvious, he said.

In

addition to the Long Avenue homes, the county

bought 2.7 acres owned by Elizabeth Whitlock's

Largin Company, on Lee Street just north of the

county Senior Center, and then four acres south

of the Senior Center, owned by Brent Scarbrough.

The

final piece of the puzzle was 10 acres owned by

the Dorothy Redwine Black estate, fronting on

Jimmy Mayfield Boulevard.

"I

couldn't figure out how to make the site work

without the Black property," said Dunn. That

piece moves the entrance to Jimmy Mayfield

instead of Lee Street, a better choice, Dunn

said, because Lee Street already carries traffic

for Fayetteville's municipal complex.

Tentative

plans are to make three or four acres available

to move the Senior Center to Jimmy Mayfield as

well, placing it next to the county campus

entrance, but right on the highway so clients of

the center have easier access.

Commissioners

didn't have to dip into the county general fund

to buy the land, because previous boards have

been putting money away for years, knowing the

jail and courthouse would have to be replaced.

"There was enough there" to finance the

land purchases," said Dunn.

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