In this October 2016 photo, a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy looks over monitors in the control center at the Jefferson County jail. (Andy Tullis/Bulletin file photo)

If Crook County’s $10 million bond measure to build a new jail passes in November, it wouldn’t affect only the residents there. People living 30 miles northwest in Jefferson County stand to be impacted as well.

A new jail for Crook County would mean a loss of revenue for Jefferson County, where the Crook County Sheriff’s Office is renting 25 jail beds at $69.22 a day due to lack of space in the Crook County jail.. Costs related to renting jail beds figured out to $619,821 last fiscal year, according to Crook County, and a portion of the rental money — about $375,000 every year, or 16 jail beds worth — is used to help pay for Jefferson County jail operations. A tax levy passed in 2013 provides the majority of the operation funds, but it doesn’t cover all the costs.

“We didn’t ask for a full operating levy,” Jefferson County Sheriff Jim Adkins said. “We built it on the 16 beds they were renting.”

If the bond measure passes, Jefferson County will need to make up that rental revenue loss to continue operating its 160-bed jail at its current staffing levels. Crook County’s rental revenue makes up a little more than 13 percent of the jail’s annual $2,773,124 operating budget, Adkins said, noting that any rental revenue Jefferson County receives from Crook County beyond the $375,000 goes into a reserve fund. Conversations about how to bridge that financial gap have already been taking place, Adkins said.

Last month, Adkins met with county commissioners and the county finance department to discuss options if the bond measure passes. These options tentatively include a tax increase for Jefferson County residents, finding a different agency to rent jail beds to, or layoffs at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Of course, a new jail takes time to build, so even if Crook County’s bond measure passes, the new facility isn’t expected to open until mid- to late 2018. That gives Jefferson County some time to figure out what could be done.

“It’s going to be a couple years before we’d be able to stop renting beds if the bond passes, so they’ve got a head start on it,” said Crook County Court Judge Mike McCabe, noting that he’s grateful for Crook County’s rental partnership with Jefferson County. “It would leave a hole in their operations a little bit, but I’ve got to listen to my constituents. Whatever the bond says is what we’ll do.”

Adkins said that out of all the potential solutions, an increase to the five-year tax levy seems to be the most likely, clarifying that everything that’s being discussed is a hypothetical until after Nov. 8. If the bond measure passes, another county meeting will be scheduled in November to discuss the issue more specifically, Adkins said.

It’s unclear at this point how much a levy increase would amount to, Adkins said, or if Jefferson County voters would pass it. Under the current levy, which will expire in 2018, Jefferson County residents pay $1.24 per $1,000 in assessed value. But with the economy and housing market improving over the last five years, Adkins said the levy is going further than it did when it was initially passed. This means that an increase to the levy won’t need to match the $375,000 dollar-for-dollar, and it might only need a small increase.

“It’s bringing in about $100,000 more than it did a year ago, so that reduces the cost of an increase,” he said, noting that if a levy increase is the direction the county takes, it could be on the ballot in May 2017.

Meanwhile, Adkins is exploring renting jail beds out to another county, or perhaps to a federal agency. This involves contacting different jails around the state, he said, either via mail or at law enforcement conferences. No one has accepted the offer yet, he said, and in the past the county hasn’t had any success with finding other renters. Adkins said that Jefferson County hasn’t ever rented its beds out to any other agency besides Crook County, except for once earlier this year when the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs rented several beds for less than a week due to heating problems in the Tribes’ jail.

“So far we’ve not been able to do that,” he said. “We reached out a couple years ago to try and see if somebody else was interested, but we didn’t have any takers. We have a 160-bed facility here and (last week) I had 80 to 85 people. We still have room to house folks.”

The third option — laying off employees — is one that Adkins said he wants to avoid, but he acknowledged that “it will be considered seriously” if Crook County’s bond measure passes and Jefferson County voters reject a levy increase.

The sheriff’s office currently employs 22 staff, according to Adkins, and he said that it’d be difficult to manage the jail at its current level of use with much fewer than that.

“We hit 110 inmates in the beginning of September and my staff was coming in and saying we need more people,” he said. “It got really frustrating and we figured we didn’t want to do that again. Whether you have 100 people in jail or 75 or 60, I’ll still need my current staffing. A jail runs 24/7.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

awest@bendbulletin.com

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