Lyon County commissioners to review jail locations

The location of a proposed new jail for Lyon County is still questionable, despite a previous vote by the Lyon County Commission to locate a new facility in Silver Springs or Stagecoach.

County manager Dennis Stark and Sheriff Allen Veil will ask the commission today for direction on whether they want to continue with plans to build a new facility or change course and just expand the current jail in Yerington.

In February, the commission voted 3-2 to locate a new jail along with a possible public safety complex that would include police and justice courts in Silver Springs or Stagecoach, since those areas were central to the entire county. Staff was directed at the time to begin looking for available land in those areas.

Veil said he was looking to see if the county still wanted a new jail in Stagecoach or Silver Springs, or if they wanted to expand the Yerington facility.

He said the push for clarification from the board was motivated by budgetary constraints.

"What we're running into is a budget issue," Veil said. "If there's going to be a jail built outside of the current location, it will cost a lot more than the 1Ú4-cent sales tax for the bond issue. We want to put that information before them again and see what direction they want to go."

Veil said the commission may just want to expand the Yerington facility when they see the information presented to them.

In February, commissioners Bob Milz, LeRoy Goodman and Larry McPherson were in support of a new facility in Stagecoach or Silver Springs, but commissioners Phyllis Hunewill and Don Tibbals were opposed. Veil had also declined to add his support to the new location until the commissioners were certain what they wanted.

"I don't have an objection to that location, but unless we address the issue of what this facility will be, it doesn't make a lot of sense to decide on a location," he said at the time.

"If it's just going to be a jail, it isn't feasible to separate dispatch and record keeping. I can't make a judgment until I know what the facility will be first."

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 351.

If You Go

WHAT: Lyon County Commission meeting

WHEN: 9 a.m. today

WHERE: 27 S. Main St., Yerington

CALL: 463-6531