$20 million OK’d for juvenile prison

Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 10:52 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Examiners on Wednesday approved a $20 million financing package to build the state's first maximum-security detention center for male juvenile offenders in North Las Vegas.

Upon its expected completion in June 2000, the facility will be run by the private company Correctional Services Inc., of Sarasota, Fla., which the state will pay a daily fee for each inmate.

Bruce Alder of the state Division of Child and Family Services, said 96 beds will be available to confine hard-core youthful criminals now being housed in Texas.

Alder said the state reformatories in Elko and Caliente don't have locked doors or fences around them. But the North Las Vegas center, to be located on Range Road near Nellis Air Force Base, will be a secure facility.

This facility will have the added advantage that most of the youths will be close to home so their families can visit.

Alder said Clark & Sullivan Construction Co. has been awarded the construction contract and plans to break ground in early April.

The ground-breaking is waiting for the sale by the state of what are called "Certificates of Participation." The certificates replace the usual method of financing through bonds.

The state pledges to pay off bonds through property taxes. Nevada now uses 15 cents from each dollar it collects in property tax to retire its bonds.

The certificates are issued with the promise that the state will repay the money, but it is not limited to using property tax money.

The correctional facility will be the first project to be built through the new financing arrangement, approved by the 1997 Legislature, and Gov. Kenny Guinn doesn't like it. Guinn, chairman of the examiners board, said it will cost the taxpayers more money and requires more work by the state.

Guinn suggested the Legislature two years ago should have put this project in the bill that lists all the state construction projects that are to be paid for by bonds. Including the detention project in the $150 million construction program would have saved legal and financing costs.

"This is not a good statute," Guinn said. State Treasurer Brian Krolicki said later it may have added as much as $150,000 to the cost by financing this project with the certificates.

But he said he expected the certificate would achieve the Standard & Poor's AA rating that the state's bonds enjoy. The rating indicates the safety of the investment., with AAA being the highest rating.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, a board member, suggested a letter be sent to the Legislature outlining the extra money and effort that is spent on this "unusual vehicle" of financing.