OTTAWA — Members of the Franklin County Tea Party are circulating petitions in hopes of forcing an election on a proposed juvenile detention facility. The group hopes to have enough signatures by the mid-October deadline, said Brad Heathman, one of the protest-petition organizers. The county commission, acting as the county public building commission, plans to issue about $3.6 million in bonds to pay for a new juvenile detention center at the present Neosho County Community College campus at Second and Beech. The juvenile facility would be built at the southwest corner of the present college building. The county will buy the campus when the college moves to its new site on K-68 in eastern Ottawa next year. The public building commission would lease the facility to the county over 20 to 30 years. When the bonds are paid off, the county would take direct control of the facility. The county plans to use the existing college building for administrative offices for the sheriff’s department, which county officials said would help alleviate jail crowding. County officials say any tax increase would be minimal and that most of the cost of the bonds would be paid from rent revenues from the county annex. If the protest-petition drive is successful, it would be too late for the November ballot. It would require a special election.
Monday, Sept. 27, 3 p.m.
