MINOT, N.D. (AP) Ward County has begun the borrowing process for a jail expansion project.
County commissioners have met with their bond counsel and financial adviser and approved seeking a $24 million bond.
Ward County voters last month overwhelmingly approved doubling the size of a jail expansion project to almost $80 million. Voters favored borrowing up to $37 million to further expand the jail and renovate the courthouse.
County voters in 2012 approved about $40 million in bonding for a 50-cell jail expansion. But the number of inmates has grown along with the population in the region on the edge of the booming oil patch.
The jail expansion will now be 100 new cells. Bonds will be paid off through an extension of an existing sales tax.