RED BLUFF — The expansion of the Tehama County Jail expected to be completed and the building occupied by 2022 or 2023.
“The Community Corrections Re-entry project has reached a solid milestone,” said Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting. “I wanted to wait for a pretty solid milestone before I brought it back to the public and the supervisors.”
The project, first approved during a needs analysis accepted by the board in October 2013, will bring 64 new beds to the jail and allow areas for treatment and training space, exercise and kitchen and laundry facilities for the entire jail complex.
Progress began picking up in November 2016 when the board accepted the conditional award money in the amount of $20 million, Goodwin said. The county must spend the money first and then be reimbursed.
An agreement with the city of Red Bluff was approved in March 2018 and the state approved the scope, cost and schedule of the project in August 2019. In March, a one cent countywide sales tax measure, to fund operation of the expanded jail, was placed on the ballot and failed. It’s estimate $2.7 million will be needed for operational cost of the expansion.
An amendment was approved in September after it was determined the city would be unable to keep Madison Street, which runs between the existing jail and the expansion, open during construction.
The former Tehama County Library site on Madison Street was demolished in October to make way for the expansion.
The preliminary plan for the facility is expected to be approved by the state sometime in November or December, Goodwin said.
“The ball is rolling very quickly now,” Goodwin said.
The working drawings and bid process will take place in April 2021 with bids due to the county by June 9, 2021. From there the project is expected to have a construction contract awarded by June 15, 2021 and that contract should be approved by the state department of finance by July or August 2021, Goodwin said.
The notice to proceed is expected by the end of July 2021 and construction should be completed by September 2022.
“We expect occupancy in late November 2022 or very early 2023,” Goodwin said. “I just wanted to let people know that this project is real, it’s happening and I’m very excited that we are reaching a very key milestone with the state that lets us move forward without further delay.”
Goodwin gave an update on the Project Homekey grant being used to purchase property for additional transitional living and said he had signed the documents accepting the grant on PATH’s behalf this week.
“The project is clearly moving forward in a positive direction,” Goodwin said.
The county is seeing positive movement in the project for the Homeless Navigation Center with the donation of land behind Raley’s from Sierra Pacific and Louisiana Pacific, which gave the land to PATH. The county is planning to use the donation of land in collaboration with its $3 million Community Development Block Grant to leverage resources and make it a bigger project, Goodwin said.
“The community really got involved and it was a community-driven project that got the land donated,” Goodwin said. “It truly is a partnership with the community, city and county. It’s still moving forward and looks like it will be a $5 million project.”
