Floyd County voters approve new law enforcement center, courthouse updates

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County voters overwhelmingly passed a bond referendum Tuesday approving the construction of a new county law enforcement center including a jail and updates to the courthouse.

The referendum needed a 60 percent supermajority to pass, but it sailed past that, coming in at 68.7 percent “yes” votes and 31.3 percent “no.” The vote total was 1,228 to 559 in a small turnout typical of special elections.

Linda Tjaden, a county supervisor who has played an active role in the law enforcement center process for more than a year now, including helping give informational presentations throughout the county, said she was glad it was over.

“The citizens have spoken,” she said.

Asked if she was worried about the vote, she sighed and smiled.

“I wanted to believe we would be passing the vote,” she said. “I felt if we could just educate the voters about the need they would come out.”

Sheriff Jeff Crooks, who in a couple of years will now likely be moving into a shiny new Sheriff’s Office, said the result “feels really good.”

“I’m so proud of all the work everybody put in — the citizens committee, the supervisors, (including) Linda Tjaden, (county Auditor) Gloria Carr, and all the people behind the scenes,” Crooks said.

“I’m also proud of the deputies,” he said. Even some of the deputies who weren’t that familiar with the jail learned about it and helped out with tours and spreading information, Crooks said.

“I’m real proud of the citizens of Floyd County for stepping up,” Crooks said. “Sixty-nine percent of Floyd County agrees we need to be proactive.”

The issue was before the voters because local and state officials have called the current county jail located on the top floor of the courthouse unsafe, too small and too inefficient to meet the county’s needs.

In 2013 the state jail inspector’s annual report said the Floyd County jail was no longer adequate and posed safety risks to the inmates and to the Sheriff’s Office staff. He said the county needed to begin looking for a solution.

The topic has been discussed in various fashions since then, but in 2015 the effort to find an answer began in earnest, with at first a possibility that Charles City and Floyd County would cooperate in a joint law enforcement center to house the Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office along with a new jail.

The city dropped out of that discussion after a study showed it would be more economical to remodel existing city facilities than to take part in a new law enforcement center.

The county then went it alone, forming a citizens committee in spring 2017 that looked at many options, eventually recommending to the county Board of Supervisors the single-story law enforcement center option that voters approved Tuesday.

The bond referendum authorizes the sale of up to $13.5 million in general obligation bonds to construct a new $10 million law enforcement center including a jail, and do about $3.5 million in updates to the courthouse which was built in 1941.