While Jason Patrick Tope, who escaped from the county jail last Friday, remains a fugitive, county officials will discuss tonight a new judicial center expanding the current Law Enforcement Center to the south.

Monday, February 11, 2002

While Jason Patrick Tope, who escaped from the county jail last Friday, remains a fugitive, county officials will discuss tonight a new judicial center expanding the current Law Enforcement Center to the south.

The hunt for Tope has shifted from an initial sweep-search using a State Patrol helicopter and an Austin K-9 unit to a quiet and painstaking investigation following up leads. Past records show that Tope has connections in Montana and Wisconsin along with his methamphetamine network in southern Minnesota.

In a workshop scheduled at 6 p.m. at the commissioners’ boardroom, architects from Minneapolis-based BKV Group will explain a concept plan for a judicial center and the process of the Western Grocery Building demolition.

BKV Group has conducted a jail needs assessment study and recommended the county have a 70,000-square-foot jail with 117-beds.

Site options have been narrowed down to one – the expansion to the south, vacating Pearl Street, as a result of the commissioners’ decision to demolish the Western Grocery Building last December.

The possibility of building the judicial center away from the current site disappeared prior to that, when a Freeborn and Mower county joint facility scheme failed due to an overwhelming opposition among business and legal communities in Albert Lea.

Now, BKV Group is proposing to conduct a $16,300 project to design the new facility, estimate the cost and facilitate the demolition.

In 1997, BKV Group accomplished a set of possible designs for a new courthouse, but those plans did not include a new LEC.

Among 10 different blueprints it proposed, scheme number 10, which would vacate the current north wing and add a new three-floor structure on the eastside parking lot, was most preferred by the county. The projected cost in 1999-2000 dollar amounts was about $12 million.

A most likely design for the judicial center would be expanding the LEC using the space of Western Grocery Building. The Sheriff’s Office, city police, jail and courts would be in that structure, while other county offices would be accommodated in the new eastside building by modifying the previous scheme.

According to a simulation the county conducted in 1999, the $12 million project would incur an additional $18 for a homeowner of a $50,000 market value house and $102 for $200,000. For commercial and industrial properties, it would be $44 for a $50,000 value and $193 for $200,000. The calculation was based on an $8 million bond issue over 25 years and use of $4 million out of the county reserve fund.

The new cost-estimation study will clarify the additional amount of the impact on property taxes.

BKV Group is also offering the county officials the chance to take a tour to some newly constructed or remodeled judicial centers within and outside the state.