By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record  

After four years of planning and negotiation representatives of six counties and Valley City met Wednesday and decided to put the project to build a jail in Barnes County on hold for now.
    Steele County withdrew from the consortium last week and announced its intention to request a refund of the unspent portion of its contribution. Its share of the cost of building and operating the proposed jail would have to be assumed by Barnes County and Valley City or distributed among the remaining partners.
LaMoure County did not send a representative to the meeting, but announced beforehand it could not participate under the most recent financial scenario.
    Sargent County Commissioner Jerry Waswick said the county was still willing to participate, but could not continue to do so if any more counties withdrew.
    Valley City representative Jon Wagar said there is still a need for a jail and the state government was coming to see the need for regional jails to house state prisoners nearing release close to their home communities, and might reconsider giving financial aid for local jail projects.

For full story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.