CADIZ — In order to obtain potential U.S. Department of Agriculture funding for a new Harrison County Jail facility, an environmental study must be conducted on the proposed location.

The estimated $15 million project is slowly moving forward one step at a time. Harrison County Commissioners Paul Coffland, Don Bethel and Dale Norris signed an agreement Wednesday with Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, a company that will perform the environmental study on the former SSG George J. Conaway U.S. Army Reserve Center property where the new jail is set to be constructed.

“In order to get USDA funding and start the process to be able to look at that site for a potential jail, we need to have the environmental study done,” Coffland said.

The plan is to have the current Army Reserve Center building renovated to house the sheriff’s office while a new jail facility would be constructed behind the center. The new facility would house between 60-80 beds, Coffland said.

The county has been in need of a new jail, as its current facility is one of the oldest in the state and can only house eight inmates. The county relies heavily on out-of-county facilities to house its prisoners, spending $170,000 on housing inmates in surrounding county jails last year alone.

Coffland said the environmental report could take around 120 days to complete. Once it is finished, officials can move forward with potential funding opportunities. Commissioners said they hope to secure a $15 million loan through USDA to help fund the project.

“We’re in the process of filling out an application for a USDA funding loan and once we get the environmental study and loan application turned in, we will know what we’ve got to work with. Then we can start to go out for qualifications or proposals for an architecture firm to design the facility,” he said.

Coffland said there may also be funding available through the Ohio General Assembly Capital Bill if it successfully passes.

“That would be something else to consider. Whatever we could get out of Capital Bill funding, would basically just come off the top of the project,” he said.

Once the funding is secured, the project will be able to proceed. Coffland said the next steps include hiring an architect for the design process and then the project can go out for bid for the construction.

“I would guess that’s going to take most of next year,” he said.

Coffland said the project may go out to bid toward the end of 2021, then construction would likely take place the following year.

“Construction can start as soon as we award a bid (for the project),” he said. “That’s what we’re shooting for, but I dont’ think we’ll know a whole lot more until we get an architect hired.”