BOZEMAN – Voters approved a new public safety center for the City of Bozeman last month, but what does that mean for the county’s facility?
Gallatin County began to brainstorm on what to do about their facility even before the city’s new safety center was passed by voters in November.
Now that they know they’ll have their own facility, the county is doing some serious planning.
County Commissioner Don Seifert said, “I think there is a certain disadvantage in that the law enforcement would have been better together, but I think the advantages are we will be able to have our own system working and we’ll be responsible for those people that are in our custody.”
The county plans to build their new facility on the campus of the current Law and Justice Center. It will be the new home to several county officials.
“The law enforcement, the sheriff, the county attorney, the district courts, the justice courts, as well as victim services, the clerk of court and all those insularly offices,” Seifert said.
The county plans to keep the Law and Justice Center up and running while construction is happening for the new facility that will be located directly to the north of the current building.
“The challenge we have in building that building, it places it pretty close to District Court Number Three, which is kind of on its own out in the parking lot,” said County Commission Chairman Steve White. “And that building, because it’s so close, there could be disruption to those courts and those are things we have to work out.”
This new facility will be connected to the Detention Center, which is just one of the advantages the county is looking forward to.
“We want to make sure that we’re getting something that’s going to last Gallatin County for the next 30 or 40 years,” White said.
Commissioners say the project is still in its early stages and that they are unsure as to how much this project will cost or when it will go to the voters.
Reporting by Emma Hamilton for MTN News
