Take our jail. Please.
That was the message from the St. Louis County Board on Tuesday when commissioners voted 6-1 to sell the former county jail building to the city of Duluth for $1.
The board also approved giving the city $107,678 -- the amount the county was planning to spend to demolish the building until the city stopped the process in a 6-3 vote on April 3, using the jail's historic status.
Commissioners said they have spent 14 years fruitlessly trying to find a new owner or new use for the building that has been vacant since 1995. With their $1 offer and free money, they said the cash-strapped city of Duluth shouldn't say no.
"This is truly a cooperative effort between St. Louis County and the city of Duluth," said Commissioner Keith Nelson of Eveleth, who proposed the resolution.
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Nelson said the offer would allow the city to pursue additional marketing strategies or consider refurbishing the jail for office space. If those fail, the cash from the county would cover demolition.
Either way, he said, taxpayers should not be required to keep an empty building standing indefinitely.
"This is a taxpayer problem," Nelson said. "This is not a city problem or a county problem."
Commissioner Mike Forsman of Ely said the city has no business meddling in county matters and that he wants the building wrapped in an orange safety fence to prevent passersby from being injured by its crumbling facade. He called on the county's property managers to drape four giant "For Sale" signs on it.
"And they can hang there until the building falls down because no one is going to buy it," he said.
Only Commissioner Chris Dahlberg of western Duluth opposed the measure. Dahlberg said he supports quick demolition but that Nelson's resolution will only serve to damage relations between the city and county.
City Councilor Sharla Gardner said county commissioners are missing the point.
"It's not that we want the jail so badly. We don't. But we have to follow the law of Minnesota. And it was pretty clear that the county
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didn't exhaust all options in trying to put the building on the market," she said.
Gardner predicted the county's offer would be defeated if it is introduced to the full council. She said the county should put the building on the market and work with preservation activists to find a buyer. If no viable alternative is reached within a year, Gardner said she would support demolition.
Yet county officials say they have marketed the building for years, showing it to 60 prospective buyers and fielding another two dozen phone calls, without receiving an offer. And after eight studies on its possible uses, commissioners said it's clear that it's not economically feasible to rehabilitate the building for office or storage space.
The 85-year-old jail is part of a historic preservation district with the county courthouse, city hall and federal building.
The board voted Tuesday to suspend its normal rules so the measure could be adopted without committee action. Commissioners said time is of the essence because a demolition bid that came in at nearly $500,000 below the expected cost is good for only 60 days.
