Whatcom County Council picks favored location for new jail, if voters approve funding
Whatcom County’s new jail will be located on LaBounty Drive in Ferndale, County Council members decided Tuesday during discussion of a new tax to fund the project.
Council members voted 6-0-1 Tuesday afternoon to choose the Ferndale site, with Councilwoman Kaylee Galloway abstaining as the council met in a special session to discuss wording of the proposed jail tax measure that they intend to put before voters in November.
“Given the cost estimates, we have to be responsible with our taxpayers’ money,” Council President Barry Buchanan said.
A jail at the Ferndale location would cost an estimated $137 million and take at least three years to build if Whatcom County voters pass a proposed Nov. 7 ballot measure seeking a sales tax of two-tenths of 1%, or 20 cents on a $100 purchase.
Three locations for the jail were under consideration after more than a year of planning, discussion and community feedback under the direction of a special committee called the Justice Project.
A site in the Irongate industrial area, near the Jail Work Center and the Anne Deacon Crisis Triage Center, and a vacant location just south of the current jail were rejected as too expensive or impractical because they couldn’t be expanded easily if more jail space was needed.
“It has to be in (the Ferndale) location to be cost-effective,” Councilman Ben Elenbaas said.
Council members were also discussing the possible size of the jail, among other details that they wanted to include in the language of the ballot measure so that voters would have no question about what they were voting for.
“I think it’s going to take some trust for all sides of the community to come together,” Elenbaas said.
Council members were undecided about the size of jail, which has been discussed as having 400 to 440 beds for prisoners.
Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu told the council that his staff would devise a formula for calculating current needs regarding size.
In addition, the council was considering language in the ballot measure to describe exactly how money collected from the proposed tax would be used.
Council members hoped that would satisfy voters who felt that funds from a 2004 jail tax weren’t spent to build a new jail nearly two decades ago.
“A lot of folks believed we were going to get a new jail out of (the 2004 tax),” Galloway said.
That one-tenth of 1% tax, which is still being collected, was used to build the jail work center and for continued jail operations.
A new jail was still needed, council officials said, but voters rejected additional tax measures in 2015 and 2017.
Council members also debated whether the ballot measure should even be called a jail tax, when a key element of the plan includes expanded mental health services, substance-abuse treatment, jail diversion programs and supportive housing for inmates as they are released.
“It’s far more than just a jail initiative. The jail is just a small aspect of a greater vision,” Councilman Tyler Byrd said.
Several issues remained undecided Tuesday, and council members said they hope to finalize the proposed ballot language at their next meeting June 20.
This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 3:31 PM.
