Sheriff and MCBOCC discuss renovations

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods’ request for a remodel and expansion of the Sheriff’s Operations Building using unspent funds from prior budget years was discussed during a Capital Improvement Project (CIP) workshop on Monday, March 21.

During the presentation at the McPherson Governmental Campus Auditorium, Jared Goodspeed, facilities director for Marion County, broke down the scope of work required to accomplish the sheriff’s request before the Marion County Board of County Commissioners (MCBOCC). 

“So we have our design in phases one through five, where phases one and five were previously funded and accounted for in our sales tax,” said Goodspeed. “The additional phases were identified as encompassing the entire building for a remodel to meet some of the sheriff’s operational needs.”

Demolition, costing a total of $238,000, is also already funded, according to county documents. 

Furthermore, the MCBOCC approved Woods’ request during its March 15 regular meeting that money previously set aside in the sales tax for the mobile command unit be released from that specific project and added to the Operations Office.

The county believes that the funding allocated through the sheriff is “adequate to do a remodel,” said Goodspeed, adding that a county architect is conducting a space management report to be completed by April 8. 

Sheriff Woods told the Ocala Gazette on March 11 that shifting funds from the mobile command unit over to the operation building was a “perfect” example of a sheriff working collaboratively with the county commissioners.

“We were looking at what was the best way to meet all my needs in remodeling the operations office, but not costing the taxpayers any additional funding in the future,” said Woods. “I think we came up with a good plan. The county has done an excellent job.” 

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By the Numbers

Overall, the remodel of the Sheriff Operations Office is estimated to cost a total of $4,716,770. It consists of five phases, including design and demo. 

Phases 1 ($636,000) and 5, as well as demo, are already funded through the sales tax. But Phase 5 includes another $810,000 in possible expansion. 

Phases 2 ($1,275,000), 3 ($641,250) and 4 ($903,000), as well as Phase 5’s expansion and design ($213,520)—a total of $3,842,770 in additional needed funds—could potentially be funded through a combination of sources.

According to county documents, the additional funding needed to complete the project could be accomplished by using a combination of sources: $576,800 from the FY 24 General Fund CIP; $2,085,548 from the FY 20 General Fund Sheriff Turnback; and $1,331,000 from the FY 22 Surtax (Mobile Command Unit)—for a total of $3,993,348.