FINALLY, COUNTY OKS PURCHASE OF LAND FOR JAIL

* Nearly 3 years after voters approved the new lockup and treatment center,
the Bybee Lake project is about to start

It took two years, 11 months and a few days, but they finally did it.

On Thursday, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners unanimously
approved purchasing a 27-acre chunk of land along North Portland's Bybee
Lake for the site of a new jail and alcohol/drug treatment center.

The county will build a complex that has 225 jail beds on one side and a
300-bed alcohol and drug treatment center on the other.

"This has been an extremely lengthy siting process," Commissioner Lisa
Naito said. "But I truly believe that this resolution is where we need to go."

The jail and treatment facility will operate separately with different
staffs and programs. The jail will hold offenders who are serving
sentences, while the treatment center will house people who volunteer to go
through the intensive treatment program.

That program -- to be run by the county's Adult Community Justice
Department -- will last from 90 to 180 days and includes addiction therapy,
group counseling and relapse therapy.

Sheriff Dan Noelle will be responsible for perimeter security of the
complex, while Justice staff will coordinate security for their program
inside.

Voters passed a $55 million general obligation bond in May 1996 to build a
jail and also to place 150 treatment beds in the community. The board's
decision Thursday gives Noelle permission to buy the land from the Port of
Portland and attain conditional-use permits to begin construction.

The Port wants to sell the land to the county for $5.5 million. Noelle said
construction will not begin for at least six months.

Getting to this point, though, hasn't been easy for the county.

The county settled on the Bybee Lake site, and Port officials offered to
sell the land.

At the same time, a dispute over control of the facility boiled over
between Noelle and board Chairwoman Beverly Stein.

Noelle wanted assurances that the treatment program would not have a
transitional program that would allow participants to move in and out of
the facility.

The board became fractured with Stein and Commissioners Diane Linn and
Sharron Kelley pushing for siting the treatment beds around the county.

Naito and Commissioner Serena Cruz backed Noelle.

It wasn't until Naito and Cruz asked for Multnomah County District Attorney
Mike Schrunk and Chief Criminal Judge Julie Franz to help solve the problem
that the board got back on track.

When asked if his relationship with Stein could be repaired, Noelle said:
"The board now has some people like Commissioners Cruz and Naito who can
think for themselves and make decisions. My relationship with the board is
going to be fine."