A Billings firm with extensive experience in detention facility planning will lead the planning process for a new Flathead County jail, the county commissioners decided Tuesday.

They voted unanimously to choose Spectrum Group Architects, which scored the highest of the four firms that submitted proposals for an adult detention facility analysis. Spectrum scored 950, while Jackola Engineering & Architecture scored 874, CTA Architects Engineers scored 872 and DLR Group scored 865. Now the county will begin contract negotiations with Spectrum Group to determine how much the jail planning will cost.

County Grant Administrator Whitney Aschenwald said it’s likely the county will have a contract finalized in mid-January. The planning work is expected to be completed by June or July next year.

The county will tap into a $40,000 state planning grant it received last year through the Community Development Block Grant program to pay for the jail analysis. The work will include a preliminary architectural report that will include a detailed cost estimate and operating cost analysis for a new 260-bed facility. Spectrum Group also will prepare a cost analysis of remodeling the existing jail to convert it into office and courtroom space.

No site has been determined yet for a new jail.

The commissioners had a buy-sell agreement with Weyerhaeuser for 24 acres of land in Columbia Falls, but scrapped that plan in October amid stiff public opposition. Other off-site locations are being explored, including 40 acres of county property off Willow Glen Drive in Kalispell and 14 acres of county land at the former Kalispell Feed and Grain site south of Kalispell.

A temporary solution to jail overcrowding was put in place in July when the county spent $1.64 million to convert the second floor of the Justice Center into jail space.

The county’s five-year capital improvement plan includes $50 million in funding for a new jail.

The plan calls for spreading the expense of a new adult detention center over three years, with a $20 million earmark for fiscal year 2020 and $28.3 million in 2021. The capital plan anticipates asking voters to support a $37 million bond.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com