COEUR d'ALENE — Kootenai County has trimmed its jail expansion proposal.

The original plan called for a 226-bed, $15.7 million plan, but the proposal now on the table is a 122-bed, $11.7 million expansion with a shell for an additional 108 beds in the future.

"We had to scale back to fit the expansion into the dollars that the county could afford," said Shawn Riley, the county's building and grounds director, adding the county has other facility projects in the works. "The shell will offer further expansion in the future."

County commissioners will discuss — and could make a decision on — the proposal Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

"The meeting with the board will be to see if it wants to spend the money or not," said Riley. If it moves forward, the project would be included in the next budget. The cost estimate includes both design and construction of the expansion.

All the county's facility projects will be paid for with the fund balance of $37 million and not raise taxes or require a public vote.

The jail expansion proposal would include 94 "hard cells" to house felons and 28 medical beds to house inmates who are sick, in need of a psychological evaluation or going through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol.

"The increase in medical bed space is necessary to accommodate the growing population of inmates with mental health and medical issues," said Kootenai County Sheriff's Office Maj. Kim Edmondson. "We have several inmates who are on suicide watches and they are housed in the holding cells in the booking area. Often, they are housed in booking long-term, depending on what their medical issue is. This housing area is best for that purpose due to the location of the medical unit, which is just off of the booking area.”

She said when medical inmates are housed in booking, they are taking up valuable space for incoming arrestees who are often experiencing the effects of alcohol or drugs and who need to be separated and secured due to their aggressive behavior.

"Our hope is that by having a medical unit with a few more beds, we’ll be able to utilize the booking area as it was designed, which is to safely hold new arrestees as we process them," Edmondson said.

On Saturday, the jail had 21 inmates with specific medical needs. There has also been a trend of more felons being housed at the jail rather than those arrested on misdemeanors, Edmondson said.

The jail currently has 90 hard cells and four medical beds. It has a maximum capacity of 327.

Riley said the tentative schedule for the expansion includes the design this fall, start of construction in spring 2017 and completion 12 to 14 months later.

The county earlier tapped LCA Architects of Boise, which is working in conjunction with Longwell Trapp Architects of Hayden, to develop a cost estimate and scope of work for the expansion.

The decision to seek an architect came after a National Institution of Corrections report last October that reaffirmed the jail is overcrowded.

The current jail near the fairgrounds opened in 1987 with 98 beds. Through remodels it was expanded to 127 beds. The latest addition, which opened in 2002, increased capacity to 327.

The number of inmates has fluctuated between 280 and 400 in recent months. County officials say the biggest demand is for hard cells.

Other facilities such as in Nez Perce and Bonner counties in Idaho and Idaho and Ferry counties in Washington hold 25 to 50 inmates on any given day who have committed crimes in Kootenai County.

The county spent $477,742 during fiscal 2015 on housing inmates elsewhere and $659,416 in fiscal 2014. Those figures do not include transportation costs and personnel time to transport inmates.

• Meanwhile, the commissioners on Wednesday at 2 p.m. will consider a proposal to spend $298,200 on improvements at the Daughters of Rebekah and Independent Order of Odd Fellows building in Post Falls for the future expanded DMV office. The proposed design cost from Architects West is $29,830.

The county is purchasing the Oddfellows building on Railroad Avenue for $410,000 for its DMV office in Post Falls and will use the current DMV office next door as the future driver's license bureau.

"They had the property listed at $429,000, but it appraised at $410,000," Riley said. "By statute, government entities can't pay more than the appraised value. We offered what it was appraised at, and they took it."

The total project cost is estimated at $740,000 — $10,000 less than what was planned for earlier this year.

"I would hope that we would have the project out to bid in November with construction starting up in February," Riley said. "It will take about four months to complete."

Riley said he expects the county to close Monday on the Oddfellows building sale.

Brian Walker can be reached at bwalker@cdapress.com.