Bond for Justice Center in Selah to be on November ballot | News

SELAH – Selah City Council agreed to add a bond for a new Justice Center onto the November ballot. The draft blueprints show the Justice Center would house the court house, police department and have a chambers for the council. 

The Justice Center project was first discussed in 2014. Last year, the architectural firm, Mackenzie, was assigned to draw up draft blueprints and give an estimated cost. The estimated cost totaled $15 million.

The council denied the project because the cost was too high. After cutting some costs, the new price tag totaled $12.6 million. With this price, the council approved adding the bond to the ballot. 

According to Selah City Administrator Joseph Henne, the next step is to meet with a bond consultant about the language and decide the time period of the bond. The city is considering three options. The first is a bond over a 20 year period which would increase taxes 14.2%. The second option is a bond over a a 25 year period that would increase taxes 12%. The third option is a bond over 30 years that would increase taxes 10.5%.

Henne said there still may be some ways the city can cut the cost to the project.

“We trimmed it down quite a bit,” Henne said. “There might be some additional ways to trim some costs, we’re going to look at that. We’re going to try to reduce the amount of landscaping.”

The police department has moved around several times throughout Selah’s history, even residing in the building next to the current city hall for a time. They are currently housed on first street in a building they’ve rented for about 12 years. 

The rent for the building is $5,000 a month and any renovations to the building have to be paid for by them. 

Selah Police Chief Dan Christman said he joined the department last year. When he joined the city council asked him to access the needs of the department. Several things came to mind including the lack of space in their current building.

With 20 officers, Christman said they’re on capacity. 

Christman said he’s also concerned about the location of their building which impacts the department’s response times to emergencies. During peak traffic times, it’s hard for police vehicles to drive in or out of the department. 

“We’re literally going from one side of the town to the other so getting out, we are delayed, then getting through commuter traffic we’re delayed,” Christman said.

Additionally, the have very little room to store and process evidence and keep their records. 

While they’ve made their current building work for them, Christman said to better serve the community, they need a modern police building. 

“I think it’s important that people understand this was never designed to be a police department,” Christman said.

In addition to improving their service to the community, Christman said the building would have security measures to keep staff safe. 

“What I hear regularly is that we feel safe and secure and I want the same thing for police officers, the police staff,” Christman said. 

If the bond is approved by voters in November, the Justice Center will be built on the 300 block of West Naches Avenue.