COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Options for a new Branch County jail are coming into focus as County Commissioners have less than 3 months to decide what’s the best plan to place on the ballot for the August primary when voters would decide if they’ll support a new jail millage. At their working meeting yesterday, commissioners approved a motion to consider at their regular session next Tuesday that says the state prison property across the street on Marshall Road is best location for construction of a new jail.
The hang up on pursuing that choice is whether or not state officials can let the county know in a timely fashion if an agreement to make the prison complex land available for a jail can get approved in Lansing. If Branch County doesn’t hear back from the state in two weeks, then commissioners would likely pick the apparent next best option which is building a new jail on county property west of the current facility.
The ballot proposal, either way, would probably be for 20 years for as much as 4 mills with a preliminary cost estimate of $22 million for a new jail complex. The deadline to submit the ballot language to the Branch County Clerk’s office is May 10, 2016.
