Grayson County commissioners on Tuesday started the legal clock on borrowing up to $8.5 million, most of it, County Judge Bruce Dawsey says, to buy 187 acres where a criminal justice campus could one day take the jail and courts out of downtown Sherman.
The vote approved publishing notice that the county intends to issue certificates of obligation, which went up on the county website the same day; it does not authorize the debt. Commissioners are scheduled to consider an order approving the certificates at 10 a.m.
Dec. 8 in the county courtroom at 100 W. Houston St. Local stations reported the expected amount at about $8.1 million; $8.5 million is the ceiling.
Why look beyond downtown
Dawsey told KXII the jail has been downtown since the 1800s. The expansion now finishing at the downtown jail tops out at 166 added beds, he said, and the district courts are crowded into an aging building.
"As our county grows, our criminal population is going to grow with that," Dawsey told the station.
He said the county wants to follow Collin County in putting justice functions on one campus: the jail, the courts and possibly the juvenile division and adult probation, while justice of the peace sub-courthouses stay in their precincts. A new jail is still years away, he said.
What the money would cover
Dawsey said the land will cost a little under $5 million. The county is under contract on a property but will not name it until the sale closes, KXII reported. The remainder would pay for moving gas pipelines near the site, clearing brush, and a new aircraft rescue and firefighting truck for the county airport; Dawsey said the current one is roughly 20 years old.
The county's notice lists the uses more broadly, from land and site work to design, construction and public safety vehicles. It says property taxes would repay the debt, with the last payment due no later than Aug. 15, 2047, and estimates principal and interest at about $12.84 million if the full $8.5 million is issued.
