City and County Officials Shop Together for White County Jail Site

White County may have thought funding would be the hard part in building a new jail. After voters approved a tax in October to pay for it, it`s been harder for officials to decide where to put it. After differences over one piece of land, the Searcy City Council and White County Quorum Court are back to square one. The county says they need between 10 and 20 acres altogether. Then building the jail would cost about $11 million. Today the two groups looked at 12 sites, ranging from 7 to 51 acres, at costs between $31,000 per acre, to $770,000 for the whole piece. "It`s been very difficult. I think everybody has hard hard feelings for one reason or another, there`s been blame from one side to the other," said Searcy Mayor Belinda LaForce. The county had already purchased land in the Searcy Industrial Park to build the jail on. Some businesses protested, the city voted not to rezone it, and now the two sides are getting together. "We`re gonna do some preliminary work this time, that we didn`t do last time, that we`d have been better off had we done before," said Justice of the Peace Ed Land. LaForce says they`ll all have to consider the site`s location to water and sewer lines, the cost and the number of acres in making a decision. After visiting twelve proposed sites Friday afternoon, they were able to scratch some of them off already. "I like at least three or four out of this list of 12 that were very good," LaForce said. County Judge Bob Parish has said they county is a couple of months behind schedule on taking bids for and beginning construction. The current jail has been filled beyond capacity for over a year. The Quorum Court says they`re still taking proposals from other cities in the county as well. They`ll discuss those proposals and today`s tour at their next meeting on Tuesday, Feburary 17.