OTTAWA — County administrator Lisa Johnson gave city commissioners and Ottawa school board members an update on the proposed juvenile detention center Wednesday. The county will buy the existing Neosho County Community College campus at Second and Beech. The deal should be closed during next year’s spring break, when the college moves to its new campus on K-68 in eastern Ottawa, she said. The center would include a day school for juveniles who come into the center for the day and return to the their families at night, said Dan Rowe, Treanor Architects, which is designing the center. The day school has been a success in other counties, he said. The county commission, sitting as the county public building commission, plan to issue $3.6 million in bonds for the center, which would be built at the southwest corner of the present college building, Johnson said. Unless more than 800 voters protest the issuing of the bonds by Oct. 20, the bonds would be issued, she said. The bonds would be repaid mostly from lease payments for offices at the Franklin County Annex, she said.
Thursday, Sept. 16, 11 a.m.
