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Commission Votes To Rebuild Jail On Current Site

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   After hearing from the public, the Escambia County Commission Thursday took another step towards building a new jail facility.

The Commission voted 4-1 on a motion to build on the L Street site of the damaged facility, while acquiring the nearby McDonald’s shopping center to make it larger to replace the existing County Jail. Commissioner Grover Robinson was the lone dissenter, favoring a different location.

Plans are to build a nearly 1,500 bed detention facility – but just where has been up for debate for nearly the 19 months since the gas explosion that totaled

Central Booking. Meanwhile, the county is paying $475,000/month housing inmates in out-of-county lockups.

Each of the three proposed locations had its detractors among the 18 speakers before the commission. Number one -- at North Palafox Street and Airport Boulevard – is near Pensacola Christian College and Brown Barge Middle School. Brent Phillips, representing PCC, spoke in opposition.

“The problem is not in the location of the jail facility itself,” said Phillips. “But rather in the businesses that locate to the facility to provide services to those who have the opportunity to be at the jail. Bail bonds, tattoo parlors, smoke shops, pawn shops and establishments selling alcohol and tobacco.”

Location number two is between Brent Lane and Beggs Lane, close to Brentwood Elementary School. It would need a retention pond and the cutting of some trees. Speaking against that was Audrey Brown, a teacher at Brentwood.

“We’re in the business of trying to keep our children out of the system,” Brown said. “But if you constantly look at a system, I don’t think that’s promoting a positive environment for our children, or a safe environment.”

The third is the Mid-Town Commerce Superfund Site, which would have to be monitored for hazardous materials in perpetuity. Lining up against that, was local environmentalist Gloria Horning.

“There is a different between putting a jail on a Superfund site, where citizens will be essentially living and working 24/7,” said Horning.

Others, representing bail bond companies near the Central Booking Facility were part of the common message to the Commission -- rebuild the L Street facility. Commissioner Lumon May sided with them.

“We’ve heard from a majority of citizens that they have business interests there, they’ve invested their life,” said May. “That flooding problem has been repetitive. Moving the jail does not fix the repetitive flooding.”

Earlier estimates had put the cost of building a new jail at around $140 million, with a 44-month construction schedule. But with new plans to purchase extra property in Inglewood, those numbers likely will be revised upward.