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Greene County Building New Jail Near Springfield Airport

Greene County Building New Jail Near Springfield Airport

Greene County Building New Jail Near Springfield Airport

The new Greene County Jail will be built south of the Springfield-Branson National Airport.

The Greene County Commission says the county is buying 23-acres of land at Division and Haseltine Road, east of White Chapel Cemetary, for about $680,000 dollars.

The county decided to look for a new site to build a jail because of high construction costs and a lack of space.

To find enough space in the current jail, construction crews would have to make it at least eight stories high.

The county says relocating staff members to the new location will save the county $95-million dollars over the next 20 years.

Design work is underway.

Groundbreaking is set for Spring 2020.

Here’s more from Greene County leaders:

An integral component in the ongoing process to construct a new jail in Greene County is
now identified.

The Greene County Commission has procured 23 acres of land in the
northwest part of the County for the site of this much needed and much anticipated
facility.

Located at Division street and Haseltine road, east of White Chapel Cemetery and south
of the Springfield-Branson National Airport, the land is being purchased by the County
from SCI Missouri Funeral Services, Inc., for $679,545.

Final closing is anticipated to be complete by the end of the year.

“A great deal of hard work and due diligence has been conducted to get to this point and
the citizens of Greene County can be proud that a suitable location has been determined
to best use the funds and resources we have been entrusted with to make this project a
reality for the community,” said Greene County Presiding Commissioner Bob Dixon.

Since the design phase was started on the Greene County jail, many facts have changed
that necessitated moving the jail to a location beyond the main Greene County campus.

The most significant example is construction materials.

At a key point in this process it was discovered designing the jail with steel pods would be cost prohibitive and possibly delay construction up to two years due to potential availability of product.

With this in mind, on May 14, 2019, the Greene County Commission voted to alter construction to include precast cells.

Another issue discovered during preliminary building designs indicated that, based on current campus space, the Greene County jail would need to be at least an 8-story building.

An additional important consideration throughout this process has also been the small foot print of the building site on campus.

Not only was this driving up construction cost, it allowed no space for future expansion.

With all these factors weighed and after much consideration, it was determined the jail needed to be moved to a space off campus.

On May 21 of this year, the Commission granted approval to pursue off-site property.

Moving the jail to this new location creates an opportunity to relocate most of the Greene
County Sheriff Office operations to one campus and the long-term benefits are
substantial: the redesigned jail at a new location will save $95 million in staffing cost
from the original resolution over the next 20 years due to indirect supervision being
utilized with having more area to spread out the cell pods horizontally as opposed to
vertically.

“We continue to work to develop a jail that meets our short and long-term needs and very much look forward to a state-of-the-art design that provides efficient use of the space and manpower,” said Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott.

Design work is underway and the County expects to break ground as early as spring of
2020.

Below are some important statistics related to the Greene County jail/Sheriff’s Office:
Current jail/Sheriff’s Office location
Year built: 2001
Houses 708 inmates, but the record was 960 inmates
Current number of Sheriff’s Office employees: 409
Number of counties where Greene County houses inmates: 10 (the furthest away is
Montgomery County, which is 206 miles away or a nearly three hour transport, one way.)
5 schools within 0.5 miles
11 schools within 1 mile
23 schools within 1.5 miles
30 schools within 2 miles

New jail/Sheriff’s Office location
Anticipated construction completion: 2022
Number of beds per resolution: not to exceed 1,407
Anticipated number of Sheriff’s Office employees: final jail design will determine the
need for additional staffing
0 schools within 0.5 miles
0 schools within 1 mile
1 school within 1.5 miles
3 schools within 2 miles

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