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Show : ii v . .. : " ''',:C ; J K'y" ' ..... i ,,:mmmm:m First phase of proposed Davis County Public Safety Complex shows Sheriff's Department Administrative and District Court buildings in the foreground, connected by enclosed corridors. Jail cell blocks in rear will house about 350 inmates, and this number can be doubled or tripled with minimum expansion to Administrative Building. Build-ing. Jail and fairgrounds discussed By GARY R. BLODGETT FARMINGTON Plans for an expanded public safety complex and possible county fairground facilities to be located in West Farmington were announced by Davis County Commission Chairman Chair-man Harold Tippetts. "Nothing is definite about the fairground proposal but there are definite plans to construct a facility that can be used as the county fairgrounds fair-grounds at least for the next several sev-eral years," said Com. Tippetts. Preliminary preparations for the public safety complex have already been started with the removal of fill dirt from two debris basin sites in Farmington to the proposed 55-acre 55-acre site located between 650 West and 1 100 West and south of Clark Lane in West Farmington. "The fill dirt being taken from debris basins in Steed and Farmington Farm-ington Canyons will be left to settle through the winter and construction construc-tion on the public safety complex is expected to start early next spring," said the commissioner. The three-unit facility is expected to be completed by early summer Of 1990. Com. Tippetts emphasized that with the purchase of 57 additional acres of property adjacent to the original 42-acre site, there will be ample property to expand the proposed prop-osed jail from an initial 350 beds up to 1 ,400 beds with three additional cell-block units having the same design as the original cell block. "The public safety complex will have three separate units, each connected with undercover corridors," corri-dors," he said. "Once a prisoner is admitted for booking into the jail, he will be held for trial, attend a trial, and be committed to jail without with-out leaving the enclosed complex." com-plex." The largest of the three units will house the sheriff's department administrative offices and a large area for jail-support facilities, including in-cluding the booking room, kitchen, recreation room, etc. The single cellblock will accommodate approximately appro-ximately 350 inmates in single and double-bunk cells. The third unit will be used to house most of the judicial facilities, including four district and juvenile court rooms-, county attorney offices, court clerk's office, judges' chambers and law library. "We'll use the space as needed and if there is sufficient space for other governmental agencies the space can be rented by the county until there is a need for the space to be occupied by the county," he said, noting that it will be a county-owned county-owned facility and county agencies will have top priority. The public safety complex will be financed by a $18.5 million bond already approved by public vote. Defending the county commission's commis-sion's recent vote to purchase 57 acres of additional property adja-- adja-- cent to the public safety complex site, Com. Tippetts said it was deemed advisable to obtain the land while the property was at a price that could be negotiated without with-out having to pay for all the utilities. utili-ties. He noted that the 97-acre combined site is raw farm land without public service utilities. "The property is very nicely divided di-vided from other properties by roads on three sides and a railroad track on the other, isolating it from other land uses, including future residential or commercial development," develop-ment," said Com. Tippetts. He said the county paid an average aver-age of about $13,000 per acre for the 97-acre plot. "But once the area around it is developed, the same property would be worth several sev-eral times that amount." Com. Tippetts emphasized that the public safety complex (Jail) will look very similar to a secondary school and playground. "It will not have a tall wire-top fence, spotlights spot-lights or guard towers," he said. |