The fate of a more than $180 million proposal to overhaul Benton County’s justice system now lies with voters.
Benton County’s elected leaders on Tuesday, Feb. 7 approved the language for a $110 million bond measure they hope will pay for a justice campus in North Corvallis. On May 16, the voters will have the final say.
The official name is “Bonds for community safety, mental health, and homelessness services facilities.”
It marks the county’s fourth attempt to pass jail-related funding with taxpayers since 2000.
“This is kind of anticlimactic, considering how much (Program Manager) Nick Kurth, commissioners and staff have put into this,” Joe Kerby, county administrator, told the Board of Commissioners.
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County officials are seeking major funding for an overhaul to Benton’s justice system, a sprawling, five-year, multi-agency effort to build up behavioral health services, jail capacity and construct an earthquake-resistant courthouse.
Benton’s latest attempt added homelessness and mental health services, language officials say is important to voters and needed to pass the bond measure and cover most of the more than $180 million construction and land acquisition costs.
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“It has received more edits than a doctoral thesis,” Vance Croney, county counsel, said about the final verbiage.
If approved, the bond measure increases tax burden by $142 each year on a residential property assessed at $258,596, or 55 cents for every $1,000 of assessed value.
County officials initially sought to keep potential bond funding under $100 million with the balance made up in state and federal funding requests.
But the amount needed crept up to $110 million as commissioners questioned how much state funding they could count on or whether the county would be able to sell its interests in the law enforcement building Benton County Sheriff’s Office shares with Corvallis Police Department.
Benton County already was set to borrow about $34 million to cover a new district attorney’s office and courthouse half-funded with state budget allocations.
Those constructions are the first of the proposed justice campus in North Corvallis, set to begin in 2023. Benton County sued to take 29 acres at the site, arguing the county has immediate need for the property to take advantage of state funding before it expired.
In a related move on Tuesday, the county commission awarded the about-$44 million construction job of the courthouse and prosecutor offices to Portland-based Hoffman Construction.
That contractor submitted a proposal that beat out Fortis Construction Inc. and Howard S. Wright, both of Portland, to take on general contracting duties.
The county is negotiating a contract with Hoffman for the job that includes how much Benton will pay for managing the project.
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Alex Powers (he/him) covers agri-business, Benton County, environment and city of Lebanon for Mid-Valley Media. Call 541-812-6116 or tweet @OregonAlex.
Alex Powers
Reporter
Alex Powers (he/him) reports agri-business, Benton County, environment and city of Lebanon for Mid-Valley Media. He studied sociology at University of Oregon where he earned a master’s degree in journalism. Alex probably is outdoors when he’s not behind a camera or notepad.
