Grant County Hosts Open House for New Jail Facility
By:
Dillon Dwyer, Staff Writer Grant County Review
Grant County Hosts Open House for New Jail Facility
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office welcomes the public to attend an open house event at the new jail facility in Milbank on Thursday, August 20, beginning with a ribbon cutting at 10:15 a.m. and tours at 10:30 a.m. Visitors can see the facility as well as meet the officers and staff members operating the building.
“Our staff is very excited about having state-of-the-art equipment, which will make their jobs easier and safer,” Jeremy Steffensen, Grant County sheriff, stated about the new facility. “We know there are going to be some struggles and concerns with moving into a new building and all the new ways of doing things. However, I think the transition will be very easy overall and provide a huge upgrade. The new design will make it a lot easier for our staff to watch the inmates and control their movements throughout the facility.”
GA Johnson Construction broke ground on the facility project in April 2025 with a target completion date of June 2026. However, rainy and wet conditions early in the project timeline and material order delays pushed that to the current completion date.
“The entire process of the building project went fairly smooth, as always there were a few hiccups along the way,” Steffensen reported. “There were a couple of delays due to waiting on materials, but that was to be expected. However, there were no significant changes made to the building throughout construction.”
Replacing the previous jail, which was built in 1972, the new facility is a single-level, 10,000-square foot, concrete structure that features office facilities, a drive through sallyport with attached holding cells, and a 20-bed general population, featuring both male and female spaces.
“The final cost of the project was $6.8 million,” Steffensen detailed. “There were $90,000 in change orders for overlooked items and equipment. Two examples of those were the new parking lot and the sidewalk on the west side of the building.”
Six million of the total project cost was financed through 20-year general obligation bonds. According to estimates, the yearly bond payment from the county will be $470,000. The estimated annual cost of transporting and housing inmates outside of the county, should a new facility not have been built, equaled approximately $487,176.
