committee studying options for a new county jail

and courthouse hopes to present a site plan for

County Commission action by mid-August.

"I'm

getting excited about the potential to get this

project built," said Commissioner Greg Dunn

during a meeting of the jail committee last week.

Dunn

and Commissioner Herb Frady are the jail

committee, along with county manager Billy

Beckett, county attorney Bill McNally, Sheriff

Randall Johnson, jail manager Maj. Robert Glaze

and consultant Jim Mallett.

Committee

members had agreed on a site plan last week, but

County Commission Chairman Harold Bost submitted

an additional proposal that consultant Mallett

will put on paper for the group's review today.

The

new concept submitted by Bost is a radical

departure from previous ideas discussed by the

committee, and members said it's unlikely that

they'll make such a sharp U-turn this late in

their discussions.

"You

could come up with 4,000 different plans for

this," said Frady. "Yes, you could plan

it to death," agreed Mallett.

But

the group asked Mallett to have a drawing of the

new proposal ready for today's meeting so they

can consider it before deciding. If committee

members decide to recommend the currently most

popular plan to county commissioners, the only

point of non-agreement will be parking. Some

committee members favor building a multi-story

parking deck instead of a traditional parking

lot, but Dunn is opposed to that idea because of

the cost.

"It

will add about $7 million to the project,"

he said. "We're asking the people for an

awful lot of money here, and I don't think we

need a parking deck right now."

Frady

disagreed, saying a parking deck is the only

aspect of the plan that would actually pay for

itself, through parking fees. And it would reduce

the amount of space taken up by paving, he said,

adding that more recent estimates put the cost at

$5.7 million

Mallett

will draw the proposed site plan for presentation

to the commission with and without a parking

deck.

Unless

committee members change their minds today, the

recommended site plan will include adding onto

the current jail, using the current courthouse as

an administrative office for the jail and

Sheriff's Department, and building a new

courthouse/judicial building within walking

distance of the jail and sheriff's complex.

The

county recently purchased additional land near

the current complex to combine that site with a

33-acre site the county already had set aside for

the project, creating a much bigger 66-acre site

that will accommodate the jail/judicial project

as well as a future new administrative building

for the county, and a new home for Fayette Senior

Services.

The

jail addition and renovations would cost an

estimated $28.7 million, the courthouse about

$23.6 million, not including parking.