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Oklahoma County commissioners removed Stockyards City land from their list of potential detention locations after a marathon assembly this week.
But an attempt through Commissioner Carrie Blumert to remove an asset the county is at 1901 E Grand Blvd. because the location of a prison failed, even after hours of objections voiced by many Del City residents, local and state elected officials and the superintendent of the area school system.
The votes followed two executive sessions, which lasted about two hours, as commissioners debated whether to stay or abandon the two options.
After the first executive session, they told the public that Commissioner Myles Davidson planned to visit with city of Oklahoma City officials to make inquiries about whether they believed its city council would support zoning the Grand Boulevard property for use as a jail.
Although it is close to Del City, the assets are located within the city limits of Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma County is facing mounting time constraints as it tries to unload land from a willing merchant and approval from the Oklahoma City Council to build a new jail.
So far, Oklahoma County only has offered to buy a piece of property near SW 54 and Newcastle Road from the Oklahoma City Airport Trust for $2.5 million, hoping to build the new jail there.
But the Federal Aviation Administration rejected that plan, saying a criminal development built on the north side of Will Rogers Global Airport could prevent the long-term federal budget from being used to expand airport operations.
Before deciding to remove the Stockyards City domain from consideration, Commission Chairman Brian Magehan said he had learned through conversations with owners of the domain that nearly all of them had no preference for selling their land to Oklahoma County for jail time.
He joined through Blumert and Davidson to support the removal of this domain from the list of possible locations.
Blumert apologized to a handful of people still attending the meeting for Wednesday’s lengthy executive sessions, but said state law prevents him from having conversations outdoors or about potential criminal locations with his colleagues.
Read more: Racial Disparity Persists at Oklahoma County Jail Despite Overall Population Decline
“That’s the way it is,” Blumert said.
As for the 1901 E Grand, Blumert said he had consistently opposed its variety and promised that this would change. But her move to remove him from the exam backfired for lack of a second.
That frustrated Del City resident Ron McCall, who hung around to watch commissioners’ actions and then addressed them before the meeting was adjourned.
“Especially today we’ve noticed a lot of opposition” to Grand’s incarceration, he told them. “I, for one, still haven’t noticed anyone in favor, maybe the seller.
“Where are they? If there’s no one for that, why don’t we let it go?” asked McCall.
Commissioner Maughan said Wednesday that he would not be able to remove the 1901 E Grand site unless a larger site can be found.
“I’ve worked for other places and. . . I’m looking to convince a few other homeowners to apply before time runs out. Some even argue that we’re running out of time,” Maughan said.
Maughan said commissioners didn’t have a proposed location near SW 74 and Rockwell as of Wednesday because the county wants to get more data on those assets before proceeding.
“Maybe we will have something for that site next week, and maybe others,” Maughan said. “Trust me, this has been way harder than any of us anticipated it would be.”
Claudia Browne, a member of the Del City City Council who had addressed commissioners earlier in the day, told them that she had overcome previous votes the three commissioners had made in favor of cutting off Grand Boulevard assets as a possible jail site.
Maughan told him he had supported its removal previously because he thought the county had a suitable location at the time.
Davidson said he voted to remove it because he felt the new prison would be too close to a soccer field Crooked Oak plans to build. But he told Browne on Wednesday night that he believed a solution to that challenge had been found.
“This is the most productive thing we have in front of us. We’re looking to reach a resolution for more than 800,000 citizens,” Davidson said.
This article gave the impression that Oklahoma: Oklahoma County removes another site from list of jail locations
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