The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Tuesday.

Michael Lewis, Institutional Team Leader at Shive Hattery Architecture and Engineering, discussed possible designs on a new jail. Lewis estimates the County will need a facility with 17-19 beds to cover the state’s average incarceration rate. The current jail can only house ten. He also recommended an extensive study to analyze the situation as a whole, examining both staffing and physical infrastructure.

The study is $28,000 and is broken into three phases. Phase One is the assessment itself, which covers half of the total cost and will take about two to three months to complete. Phase Two compiles the analysis of the study, which takes about 25% of the cost and two to three months to complete. The final phase is the drafting of a referendum vote, which would be the other quarter of the total cost.

Lewis agreed with Sheriff Marty Arganbright that separation of male and female prisoners was one of the main concerns with the current facility. He also said that remodeling, as opposed to creating a new facility, is still feasible at this time. He feels that the Sheriff’s Office, at the very least, has enough staff to carry out the tasks associated with a 17-19 bed jail.

The Board took no formal action on the presentation. The Board also approved performance, payment and maintenance bonds for two engineering projects, and a budget report for the current fiscal year.