The price for a new Mower County Jail is going up without a spade of dirt being turned.

The proposed new 128-bed jail went up $1 million when KKE Architects Inc. declared in their schematic design work that’s what it would cost to build a jail housing 128 prisoners.

Now, the price tag is increasing again.

On Tuesday, county coordinator Craig Oscarson told the Mower County Board of Commissioners staffing levels for the new jail would have to meet the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ standards.

Oscarson put the figure at 32 staff the day the jail opens.

That’s one more jailer than originally anticipated by officials.

Presently, the Mower County Jail has 16 detention officers and is classified by the DOC as a 90-day lockup.

Most of the prisoners are boarded out to Mitchell County in Osage, Iowa and Freeborn and Goodhue counties in Minnesota.

The DOC will require specific numbers of jail staff to be in place, when the new jail is built and opened.

Mower County will have to hire detention officers to meet those staffing levels.

“The taxpayers will be paying for that,” said Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi.

The sheriff said Mower County will have to adhere to the findings of a transition team as far as the number of prisoners housed in the new jail and the staff watching over them.

“One” as in one more jailer before the jai opens is, indeed, the loneliest number in the world until it is combined with the cost to hire an additional jailer and then whatever number of jailers the DOC demands be in place.

“Whatever number of jailers we have to hire will be a challenge,” said Amazi. “We will want the best people we can find for those jobs and there’s no guarantee that many people will be available when we need them.”

Currently, patrol deputies handle the transport of prisoners to jails in Mitchell County, Iowa and Freeborn and Goodhue counties in Minnesota.

Taking deputies from their routine patrol and investigation duties has been a public safety hazard Amazi has lone criticized and she continues today.

“I don’t like it,” she said.

Filling staffing levels to satisfy the DOC is also a sensitive issue to the sheriff.

On the subject of the progress — or, lack of it — surrounding the proposed new jail, Amazi remains open-minded.

“Any progress is good progress,” she said. “Moving forward is a good thing.”

With a design team in place, including architects and construction manager, and the regular work plan meetings on the jail and justice center project, from the county board’s perspective progress is being made and officials are moving forward.

On Tuesday, they announced Richard Huffman, owner of the Thoroughbred Carpet/George’s Pizza real estate in the Robbins block has reached an agreement with the county to sell the property.

Two more property owners in the Robbins block are apparently in the final stages of selling their real estate to the county.

Oscarson and Ray Tucker, 2nd District county commissioner, each said they expect agreements to be announced within the next two weeks.

When the county acquires the Robbins block, it plans to convert it into a geothermal field for the new jail and justice center energy needs.

The jail and justice center has not enjoyed smooth sailing from the start for a variety of reasons.

Originally, county officials wanted to have the two-block area in downtown Austin ready for construction of the new facilities by Oct. 1.

Then, the city of Austin asked for and received an extension to Dec. 31.

Now, the county has been waiting on the city to complete negotiations with the property owners in the two-block area.

Seven months into the year, the county is still waiting.