By Gail Binkly

Montezuma County has received preliminary notice that it has been awarded a $347,000 grant to renovate its existing jail into a detox unit and community-corrections/work-release facility.

The grant, however, is contingent upon voters approving a 0.45-cent sales tax to allow a new jail to be built.

The grant, which came from the energy and mineral impact fund administered by the state Department of Local Affairs, was announced last week, according to Undersheriff Sam Hager. The fund is designed to help cities and counties that have significant mining or natural-resource-extraction activities deal with the impacts of those activities; it also can help local entities cope with the effects of having a mining operation end suddenly.

In 1996, the county received a $250,000 energy-impact grant that paid most of the cost of paving the McElmo Canyon Road.

The $347,000 grant was the full amount that had been requested, Hager said, and would pay most or all of the costs of renovating the existing jail at the Justice Building complex.

"This was written directly for the renovation of the existing facility into the work-release and detox unit," he said. "Our architect’s estimate was $347,000 to renovate."

Nothing is official yet, said Ken Charles of the Durango office of the Department of Local Affairs on Friday.

"The final decision has to be made by the executive director of the department, and that will probably be next week," Charles said.

However, the executive director rarely overturns the recommendations of the committee that considers grant requests.

On Nov. 2, the county’s voters will decide whether to approve a sales-tax proposal that would fund a $6.26 million bond to pay for a 110-bed jail to be built on land north of Empire Street and west of Mildred Avenue. The bond would also provide funds for the renovation of the old facility and operating costs for the new jail and new programs.

When the bond is paid off -- in 20 years or less, depending on sales-tax revenues -- the tax would end. The grant presumably would allow the bond to be paid off earlier.

The current, 46-bed jail is woefully overcrowded, often holding 90 to 100 inmates on weekends. County officials sought a similar sales tax last year, but it failed by a 4-percent margin.

Hager said the grant award was a welcome announcement.