Bremerton Will Compete To Locate State Corrections Facility In SKIA – Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON —

The city of Bremerton is putting itself in the running for a state corrections facility to house about 1,000 prison inmates in between sentencing and long-term incarceration.

David Overton, who owns property within the South Kitsap Industrial Area, made the pitch this week to the Bremerton City Council to get the city’s necessary backing for the proposal.

The Legislature authorized the Department of Corrections to build a new reception center to meet an expected increased demand for prison space. The corrections facility in Shelton currently has Western Washington’s reception center, but it would turn that space into long-term prison space once the new reception center is built.

The small-term center would house as many as 1,024 inmates for an average of four weeks. Prison officials would use the time to evaluate the physical, psychological and security needs of the inmates before sending them to long-term prisons.

Roy Runyon, city councilman, said the benefits to Bremerton would be “huge” if the city were to be chosen for the site.

The state estimates the new center, expected to open in 2016, will result in almost 600 jobs — 322 correctional officers and other custody staff; 185 administrative, maintenance and operations staff and 79 health care workers.

Overton’s property sits on the south end of SKIA. During Wednesday’s council meeting he said selling the property is not the big motivator for him. Instead it is the utility infrastructure that would go in to serve the proposed 356,000 square foot center located on between 40 and 50 acres.

That infrastructure construction, Overton said, would help him and the port woo other developers to build within SKIA.

Doris Carender of Bremerton expressed some reluctance about the facility at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “I’d like to know what the costs to the citizens of Bremerton might be,” she said, asking if such a facility would affect utility rates on residents.

Overton said it is early in the process and many issues, including ones that would come out in public outreach meetings and during an environmental impact study, will become clearer as the process continues.

Among the requirements for the location selected is one requiring that it be within 30 minutes of Interstate 5. Overton told the City Council it takes 25 minutes to get to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from his property and another five minutes to get to I-5.

Nick Wofford, city councilman, said his only concern was about property going off the property tax rolls, but that overall he supported the thought of pursuing the site.

Fellow councilman Greg Wheeler was against the thought in large part because he said it was committing the city to pursuing the site before city officials knew that they really wanted it.

“When we vote on this resolution we are signaling our intent to support this project,” he said.

Runyon, Wofford, Adam Brockus, Carol Arends, Jim McDonald and Will Maupin voted yes on a resolution committing the city to providing site information and participating in the site selection process, offering public outreach opportunities and coordinating with other agencies on utilities in locating the site in Bremerton. Wheeler and Cecil McConnell voted against it.

Corrections officials required that cities or counties indicate their support for the location of the center within their communities by Thursday. The city will be required to provide site data by Jan. 21. Corrections will narrow the list of applicants down to three and is expected to make a final selection by the end of this year.

In December the communities of Raymond and McCleary indicated they would be vying for the site.

The estimated cost to build the reception center is $167 million.