Napa County OKs Option Agreement To Buy New Jail Site

Napa County Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of an option agreement to purchase a 27-acre site for a new county jail for $6.6 million.

The approval for the WHAL property, at 2300 Napa Vallejo Highway, was followed by unanimous approval for a $15 million state grant application to build the 72-bed jail as an alternative to the current downtown Napa facility.

The new secure facility is seen as a spot to house soon-to-be released offenders engaged in re-entry preparations and those in special programs such as job readiness training, county corrections officials said Tuesday.

Also approved Tuesday was the purchase of the Mylan Inc. property on Imperial Way to relocate the county's Health & Human Services Offices out of its current spot on Old Sonoma Road.

Both the jail land and the Mylan purchase will cost $23 million. Of that amount, supervisors agreed that $16 million would be financed through issuance of certificates of participation bonds, likely with a 10-year repayment schedule.

The remaining $7 million would come from existing county funds: $4 million from tobacco master settlement money; $2 million from the Teeter reserve fund; and $1 million from a special reserve account.

Napa County Executive Officer Nancy Watt told supervisors that it made sense for the county to first pay off the tail end of its prior debt from 2005 before incurring the new debt.

"It fits in with our longstanding policy of trying to keep our debt level," Watt said.

Napa County's option on the jail land gives the county about five months for due diligence before making the purchase final next spring.

Supervisors' unanimous votes were all 4-0 due to the absence of Chair Brad Wagenknecht, who was absent to celebrate his birthday.