Updated April 22: The feasibility study on a regional criminal justice facility for Grays Harbor and Mason counties will be conducted by KMB Architects, not KMD Architects as originally published.
Grays Harbor County is studying the development of a regional criminal justice facility with Mason County to address the deteriorating existing facilities and lack of inmate space both counties face.
County commissioners Tuesday approved a request for bid for KMB Architects to do a feasibility study on the facility, which would be located on the border of the two counties. If KMB is also approved by Mason County, negotiations will begin to determine final cost of the study.
The county’s current jail facility “is in pretty sorry shape,” said Commissioner Wes Cormier. He and Commissioner Randy Ross added the juvenile facility, situated in East Aberdeen just north of Junction City, is increasingly threatened by encroaching water from the Chehalis River.
The study will give commissioners a chance to see “what the facility might look like and how it would operate,” said Ross.
There aren’t enough beds to accommodate inmates at the current county facility, said Cormier. “They have the same issues there” in Mason County.
The KMB study, if also approved by Mason County, would consider local factors that have led to the increased jail population. It would also suggest possible locations for the facility, and preview its possible design. Ross said the current trend for such facilities has inmates housed on a single floor, allowing for more efficient movement of inmates within the facility. Staff at the county jail currently has to move inmates between multiple floors.
administration building
Commissioners also approved $26,553 for Thomas Architecture Studios to look at addressing space needs at the county administration building in Montesano.
“We’re trying to become more customer friendly,” said Ross. He said most people who visit the building are there for one of three services: licensing, paying taxes and building permits. The idea is to have those three services located together.
Thomas Architecture Studios will conduct a “space needs assessment on the second floor of the building, for the potential project of transitioning the Auditor’s Office (from the first floor) to the second floor. This move would be intended to streamline business with the public by having all three offices (Assessor, Auditor, Treasurer) all together on one floor,” according to the request.
The need for more meeting space has the same firm looking into a redesign of the commission meeting room. This could potentially involve replacing the current fixed seating with movable chairs and adding dividers to create smaller individual meeting rooms, said Ross.
Cormier said the purpose of the redesign would be to maximize the current space in Montesano “instead of building new buildings.”
