Albert Lea City Manager Paul Sparks proposed around $900,000 as the price tag that the city would pay for the city police portion of the new Freeborn County criminal justice center during a city-county joint meeting Monday.

According to Sparks, the figures are based on the anticipated square-foot cost. The city calculated the cost of the square footage the police would use, along with half the cost of the space to be jointly used with the sheriff’s office.

The city has considered paying for the construction of the space rather than renting it, like it currently does for the law enforcement center, Sparks said.

Sparks said the city would want to make a kind of joint-powers or contractual agreement with the county to take part in the $25.7 million bonding rather than issue its own bonds for the payment, so that it can save the estimated $25,000 transaction cost associated with the bonding.

Having resolved the litigation by the Freeborn County Committee for Fairness, the county is planning to sell the bonds on Thursday before the commissioner’s meeting and Housing Redevelopment Authority board meeting scheduled at 6 p.m.