Clay County Mayor Dale Reagan said the county is still in the loan application process with the USDA, trying to get a $15 million loan for a new jail.
Reagan said the county is still compiling information that USDA has asked to be submitted with the loan application. Reagan said he expects the application to be ready for submission sometime soon.
“It takes time,” Reagan said. “I know this has been something that has been an ongoing process for a long time for us and everything, but hopefully, we are getting closer anyway, and I just pray, you know, that we’ll be awarded that loan, so that we once we get that then we can really pull the trigger on it.”
Reagan said that since the county has gone through the loan process before, he believes the process is going faster this time around. Reagan said the county expects to hear back this week about acquiring a civil engineer.
“They do the soil borings and all of that to make sure that the property will be sufficient for that particular structure and everything,” Reagan said. “So hopefully that will work, and I feel like it will because not far from where the jail is gonna be is our EOC Center (Emergency Operations Center) and a lot of that has already been drilled on and everything.”
Reagan said Sheriff Brandon Boone has done a good job of staying in contact with the state, as the county is under a plan of action. Reagan said he is staying positive about getting a new jail built.
“Hindsight is 20/20, and so I mean, you know, we run into situations along the way,” Reagan said. “Hopefully, we worked a lot of those out, and we won’t be running into the same things that we did before. God forbid we run into another COVID deal. That really slowed the process down on us and everything.”
Reagan said the property located on Cordell Hull Drive is still the target site for the new jail and that a resolution will be presented to the county commission at the end of the month.
