LYNDON (KSNT) – Osage County voters have cast their votes for a four-year, half-cent sales tax increase to build a new law enforcement center. The vote passed with 1,149 voting yes and 505 voting no.
The project would be capped at $20 million and would be built in front of the current Osage County Sheriff’s Office in Lyndon. The new facility would house the Osage County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Operations Center, Dispatch, Evidence Lab/Storage and an ambulance bay.
It would also include a jail with more than 140 beds. Osage County Sheriff Chris Wells said the jail would be used to help pay for the facility and bring additional revenue to the county.
“We’ll farm in inmates, which generates revenue for the county,” Wells said. “At 85 percent capacity, we’ll generate $1.4 million for the county. That’s after paying the costs of the bonds and operation.”
Wells said the new facility is needed because the current LEC and jail are falling apart. Each of the buildings leaks when it rains, the floors are rotting and there is black mold present. He said the county has been sued multiple times due to the conditions at the jail.
If voters had rejected the half-cent sales tax, Wells said the county planned to build a smaller facility. It will include half the number of beds, which means there won’t be extra revenue. The county would have funded it using a 30 year, three-quarter cent rise in property taxes.