BELLAIRE – Antrim County leaders were looking to build a new public safety center, but voters rejected the proposal last Tuesday.

The facilities would have included the sheriff’s office, jail, highway patrol, administration, a drug abuse assistance facility and several other departments under one roof. But with Tuesday’s vote, they will remain scattered throughout the county.

“Our current facility is basically from 1955. It’s aging, but as far as we know, it’s the oldest jail still active in the state of Michigan. It is not sustainable to continue moving forward with this structure, to continue repairing. It’s just not a smart use of taxpayer money and it’s not well designed and it’s really not very functional and it’s certainly not safe for employees or inmates in the state. So something really needs to be done,” shares Janet Koch, Antrim County Deputy Administrator.

Antrim County leaders say that with voters rejecting the Public Safety Center, they are in a difficult situation with the more than $30 million dollar project off the table.

“It’s not an easy place to be right now, which is why we’re all tired. But it’s a problem faced by many different counties and many different rural areas. Prisons are very expensive and are not a popular option for obvious reasons. But it is the legal duty of counties to provide jail. And we have to find a way to make something work for the county,’” Koch explains.

Antrim County Government has a few options, but each comes with a cost.

“Another possibility is to build what they call a small detention center that would simply be temporary and would hold prisoners for up to 72 hours who would then have to be transported to other counties. Other counties do that and it is a possibility. But then the transportation costs are practically eternal,” says Koch.

The county could build a new, small jail or figure out how to make the current one work, but they are open to talking to people in the community about why it wasn’t approved in the first place.

“We would love to hear from people why they voted for or against. We are always happy to hear from the public. And if you can reach out to the administration or your local commissioners, your own commissioners, it would be wonderful to hear people say how and why they voted yes or no. “It would be very good to know,” says Koch.

There is no set timeline for a decision, but the Antrim County Commission continues to discuss how to resolve this issue.