Dan Hall of BG Consultants said the facility, which could be expanded from 48 to 72 inmates if built, would bring the county's incarceration facility into the 21st century as compared to the old jail built in 1932.

Hall will be joined in two weeks by Jim Robertson, a consultant out of Colorado, who also will be hosting the Marion County Board of Commissioners in Colorado for a study of new facilities there.

It is believed the new jail would give Marion County the capacity to keep inmates from other counties for pay. County jailer Gary Klose said more heavily populated counties such as Sedgwick have indicated they would keep the jail full.

Hall said the study showed that the Marion County Jail average daily inmate population has varied from four to 14 over the last two years, with a high of 28.

Security issues have arisen when prisoners have had to use bedding placed on the floor because there weren't enough cell beds, he said.

Hall said arrests in rural areas of Kansas have greatly increased because of the illegal production of methamphetamine. In Marion County, 95 percent of the people arrested are from Kansas, he said.

In 2004, nearly 20 percent of inmates came from Marion; 14 percent from Hillsboro; 10 percent from Peabody; nearly 7 percent from Wichita; nearly 6 percent from Florence; nearly 5 percent from Newton; 4 percent from McPherson; 3 percent from Herington; nearly 2.5 percent from Durham; 2 percent from Ramona, about 1.5 percent each from Tampa and Lost Springs; 1 percent each from Topeka, Emporia, Manhattan and Salina; and 19.5 percent from other places.

By 2015, Hall said it is projected Marion County, for its own prisoners, will need a jail with a capacity for 43 prisoners, with an average inmate population of 36. By 2005, those numbers are predicted to grow to 53 and 44, respectively.

Yet at the same time, Hall said, Marion County's population is projected to stay roughly the same, with a slight decline over the next 10 years.

A new law enforcement center probably would include offices for the sheriff, undersheriff, a receiving officer, and perhaps even for other related offices such as the county attorney.

It would save space and enhance security by providing such services as video arraignments between the jail and the courthouse rather than prisoners physically being taken to the court.

Hall said the facility would include a public area, a staff area, room for three dispatchers, a law enforcement training room, a booking area, a juvenile detention room and other things.

The jail would be handicapped accessible, and include a handicapped cell, but the commissioners should wait to decide whether it will include an elevator, Hall said.

Other business

In other business, commissioners read aloud a letter from Eilene Sieger of the county planning commission stating she objected to a correction of the commission minutes from two weeks ago, saying that she said people who couldn't afford 40 acres probably couldn't afford a house either. Sieger said she said one acre, not 40.

County Clerk Carol Maggard showed commissioner's a letter she had drafted for them to the Marion Planning and Zoning Commission outlining changes to be made to bring space requirements in agricultural areas for rural housing down to as little as three acres.

Commission Chairman Bob Hein said the letter appeared to address the changes giving commissioners and Planning Director David Brazil time to review what is needed.

Commissioner Dan Holub referred the others to a county plat map that shows Section 7 west of Goessel with 12 homes on it in a row along a small area of creek frontage.

Holub said it showed how landowners there had preserved farm land while allowing development of marginal land all "without government interference."

The commissioners were hit with "fuel-price shock" on road and bridge transport fuel bids with Cooperative Grain & Supply of Hillsboro taking the bid at $17,813 over a bid of $17,968 from Cardie Oil of Tampa. Maggard said the total price was a record for the number of gallons represented, a full $3,000 above the total bid last time.

The CG&S bid included 3,500 gallons of diesel in Tank 3 at $1.995 a gallon for $6,982.50, 1,500 gallons of diesel in Tank No. 1 at $2.25 a gallon for $3,375, and 3,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline at $2.315 a gallon for $6,945.

The Cardie per gallon bids and totals for the same quantities respectively were $2.2797 for $7,978.95, $2.0197 for $3,029.55, and $2.3197 for $6,959.10.

The commissioners reviewed status of road improvements with Road and Bridge Director Jim Herzet.

Commissioner Randy Dallke said he has been driving over Timber Road, noting progress in tearing it up while leaving a crown.

Herzet said the crown and road will continue to be reshaped preparatory to surfacing every time it rains.

In reply to questions about other roads where holes are forming in hard surface, Herzet said his crew is hand-patching, and he is acquiring material for patching in cold weather.

Hein said he receives many inquiries on when the county will get the Roxbury Road patched.

Holub said the City of Marion contacted him about Westar Energy searching for a site for a 200-employee coal-fired electrical generation plant that would have access to water, highways, railroad and cross-country electric lines.

The commissioners said they would do whatever they could for a Marion County community to get the plant.

Holub suggested, in considering the Marion County Fair parade, rather than having the three commissioners riding in a car in parades, the county should have a float with all elected county officials riding it.

The commissioners approved a bid of $2,739 from the Hillsboro Free Press Extra for publication of delinquent taxes with free republication in the Hillsboro Free Press.

Hoch Publishing bid $3,341.25 for publication of the tax list in the Marion County Record, Hillsboro Star-Journal and Peabody Gazette on the basis of a state statute that leaves such a possibility open-even though its original intent apparently was to allow counties without newspapers to publish their legal notices in outside papers that had general circulation among their citizens.

The Hillsboro Free Press Extra was designated the county legal newspaper this year with a commitment by the publisher also to put the legals in the Free Press.

The commissioners noted that apparently publishing of the tax list has never been put up for bid before, but that it is good to try to save the county money whenever possible.

They discussed putting minimum bid prices on delinquent tax properties that come up for auction in September.

Holub suggested that the county attorney research whether the county could allow cities to give away delinquent properties for people to build homes on.

Michele Abbott-Becker, director of communications and emergency management, said county medical teams will hold a weapons of mass destruction functional drill Sept. 10 at St. Luke Hospital to check response with particular attention to decontamination procedures.