County accepting proposals for jail renovation

RED OAK – Montgomery County’s Board of Supervisor essentially granted the jail a 30-day stay of execution at a public meeting last week.

While no formal vote took place, the Supervisors seemingly agreed to publish a Request For Proposals (RFP) for a month to determine if there is any interest in an outside party renovating the facility once its vacated.

Construction on the new law enforcement center a few hundred yards to the east is expected to be completed to the point where it can house inmates in early June.

Daric O’Neal, an architect with Alley-Poyner-Macchietto, agreed to provide the RFP free of charge and told the supervisors at Thursday’s meeting the jail is at least worth a second look before demolishing it.

“If you can put out this Request For Proposals and advertise these incentives available, you can get some out-of-town developers who might want to pursue this opportunity,” O’Neal said. “If some private individual or company had a plan that didn’t involve Montgomery County tax dollars, we would all be for that.”

O’Neal said with various tax credits and rebates and the $100,000 the county has allocated for demolition of the building a developer would only need about $58,000 of private funds for a $500,000 restoration.

However, some of the supervisors weren’t exactly in favor of taking the money they would spend demolishing the building on saving it.

“I realize its not spending any more money, but I would not do that (allocate $100,000 for renovation of the building) in good faith,” Donna Robinson said. “And I think the voters in the county would be lining up at our door saying ‘what are you doing?’”

Robinson in fact made it clear she wants to see the building gone.

“As the chair of the jail committee that worked for 15 months on the jail project … we all thought … the existing building would go away,” Robinson said. “I’m pretty sure most people on that committee felt the same way.

“I feel we are just throwing out road blocks trying to hinder this process.”

Other supervisors wanted to take a wait and see approach.

“I think there is pros and cons,” Karen Blue said. “If a private developer would come in there and use it for something, we wouldn’t have to spend the money for demolition and another plus is it would be back on the tax rolls and it would actually generate tax dollars for the county.”

Regardless, Board of Supervisors Chair Bryant Amos stressed no final decision has been reached.

“Its not a done deal (demolition),” Amos said. “If someone does come through with a plan, it would save the county money and create extra revenue in the long run.”

Ken Rech, who served on the jail committee and spoke in favor of demolishing the building, advised the supervisors to make sure someone has more than just a plan.

“There’s a lot of developers out there who have a lot of ideas, but no money,” Rech said. “We’ve seen a lot of buildings in Red Oak and round the area with people who have lots of ideas and no money and the buildings are going downhill quickly … and this building is already going downhill quickly.”

Ron Carlson, who owns the nearby Do-It-Center, agreed with Rech and Robinson that the building should go.

“I thought that was something everyone was looking forward to and I know I was looking forward to,” Carlson said of the demolition.

However, Jim Hoskinson, a member of Red Oak’s Historic Commission, reminded the Supervisors that during the campaign seeking voter approval for the new law enforcement center it was never stated passage would include demolition of the existing jail. He also reminded the supervisors the City of Red Oak is actively engaged in a downtown revitalization project directed at saving old buildings such as the jail.

“I can’t help but think the demolition of a historic building in Red Oak wouldn’t  be a hindrance to that kind of effort,” he said.