Last Updated on February 22, 2024, 8:39 AM | Published: February 22, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY — Hours of impassioned public comment about various parcels the Oklahoma County Commissioners were considering as sites for the new jail Wednesday had a desired effect for some but not others.
By the end of the meeting, commissioners decided 2-1 to push hard to acquire 71 acres at 1901 E. Grand Blvd in the City of Oklahoma City limits but only a block away from the Del City limits containing a residential neighborhood.
After returning from the executive session, Commissioners Brian Maughan and Myles Davidson voted to pursue the near SE OKC location with Commissioner Carrie Blumert voting against it, which she had already vowed to do before today’s meeting.
“We’re going over to talk to City of OKC zoning staff as soon as we are through here,” Maughan told Free Press after the long meeting. “Of course, we don’t know how long their rezoning process will be, so that will determine timing to a certain extent.”
The parcel at 1901 E. Grand is nearest to the intersection of SE 22nd Street and Grand Blvd just north of Trosper Park and Trosper Park Golf Course. It is about a 10 to 15-minute drive southeast from Oklahoma City Hall in the core of downtown OKC.
Eastside locations out
The upside for northeast Oklahoma City residents is that parcels previously considered in eastern OKC were removed from consideration earlier in the Board of County Commissioners meeting.
Audible sighs of relief and applause broke out among the contingent of Eastside OKC, Forrest Park, and Spencer residents who so packed the commissioner’s meeting room that deputies stopped more from coming in to avoid running afoul of the Fire Marshall.
After a string of passionate, reasoned speeches from Eastside leaders, a motion was made by Carrie Blumert, and seconded to remove the NE 23rd and Coltrane parcel from consideration. A unanimous vote followed with applause and cheers from attendees following.
The meeting paused as some then stood up to congratulate their friends and leave.
In that moment Free Press asked Pastor Lee E. Cooper, Jr. about the dynamics that he had seen in the room about the Eastside locations.
“The only thing that we’ve seen in terms of development has always been for Northeast Oklahoma City to be a dumping ground for whatever else, you know, the city didn’t want or the county did not want,” answered Cooper about the reason for the strong passion shown in the comments. “And so, we put it in northeast Oklahoma City. But in order for evil to prevail, good people will do nothing. But this room was full of good people today who are willing to stand up and fight for what is right, making sure that this commission will have the will to do what it needed to do.”
But, others from the Eastside stayed in the room in solidarity with Del City leaders still present and concerned about the status of the ongoing question about 1901 E. Grand.
Motion dies with no second
But, when it came to speakers encouraging Commissioner Carrie Blumert to make a similar motion to remove the 1901 E. Grand site from consideration, it died for lack of a second from either of the two other commissioners, Maughan or Myles Davidson.
This time, instead of cheers there were moans and angry comments out of frustration heard throughout the remaining crowd.
It comes as a blow to Del City Council members and residents who have worked hard to head off the locating of the new jail so close to the small city of 22,000 surrounded by the larger city limits of Oklahoma City.
Earlier in February, the Del City Council passed a resolution to begin preparations for a lawsuit against Oklahoma County if commissioners chose the 1901 S. Grand site.
What the City of Del City plans to do after Wednesday’s vote is not yet known.
But, Del City Councilmember Claudia Brown had plenty to say after learning about the vote.
“I am so disappointed, dismayed, and appalled,” Brown said in a message to Free Press. “We have been fighting against this location for too long. I can’t find a reason why we shouldn’t feel like this is an attack. We stand ready to fight as a community.”
Referring to the Del City Council’s plans to fight the move in court, Bown repeated language she has used before in a City Council session: “As stated before, gloves are off and we are knuckle to knuckle with anyone who believes 1901 E Grand is the best location for the new jail. Our community deserves more. We will not stop the fight.”
Alternate parcels
Out of the six parcels being considered, commissioners chose to select three as possible alternates if 1901 E. Grand doesn’t work out.
They called for the county engineer to begin drilling test bores to gain knowledge of the subsurface of the following three sites:
- Up to 40 acres located near Reno and Exchange.
- Up to 50 acres located near I 240 and Sunnylane.
- 61.43 acres of the Townley Trust land (just across the river SE of Bricktown).
“There are a lot of challenges with this,” Maughan said after the vote but still in session. “And we may or may not see that this succeeds at City Hall. So I have supported that the alternatives have been explored is we’re simultaneously going through this process is we’re lacking in time.”
The county’s ARPA funds have a deadline by which they need to be spent.
Commissioners comment
“We’ve gone through an exhaustive process,” said Maughan. “We’ve heard from lots of public from all over. Different sites have each produced a significant number of protests. We have had things disqualified because either the property owner wasn’t willing to sell, because the engineering didn’t look favorable, or there wasn’t ultimately enough property owners willing to join in to do it.”
After the meeting, Maughan told Free Press that his view was that each of the sites had “almost identical” types of objections from the neighbors.
We asked Maughan about the comments voiced in the meeting and afterward to me from Mesta Park neighbors who said they wanted the jail to be in the same location.
“All the people I heard from saying don’t do this, … I had one person come before our meeting today who said do it,” Maughan told us in response. “A lot of people work and they can’t be here during the business day to do this. So a lot of people — I’d say the vast majority of people — have actually registered their protest through us directly and not through the open meeting. And so I’ve listened to all of them and tried to call as many of them back as I can.”
Commissioner Carrie Blumert has been against certain sites in east Oklahoma City, but she also seemed to be convinced that the current site would not be able to work, either.
In response to our asking about the Tulsa campus of their jail, Blumert seemed to have thought that point through.
“If Tulsa County had to be rebuilt right now, with the standards that are in place, it would not fit on their 20 acres,” Blumert said.
“Another big factor is cell size, space for services, all of that,” continued Blumert. “There are standards to how big we have to build those. And that’s why you need the land.
We also have to build — and our engineer can speak to this much better than me — we also have to build behind the cells behind the pods, space for contractors to work so that they don’t have to go into the pods.”
“So, on the current site, if we were to buy up some land around it and try to spread out a little bit, we would be too close to a school statutorily,” Blumert added.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
