Despite a protest from Commissioner Sam Patrick, the Clatsop County Commission hired professional jail planning consultants to find solutions to the county’s ongoing jail space crunch.

The board voted 4-1 at its meeting Wednesday to contract with Voorhis Associates Inc., of Lafayette, Colo., to review all options for expanding Clatsop County’s jail capacity and check the feasibility of each.

Patrick voted no, saying he doesn’t believe the county needs another study on how to increase jail capacity and some options that will be assessed are not worth exploring further.

The county has budgeted $100,000 for the jail planning consultation; Voorhis Associates proposed to do the analysis for $96,010.

Consultants with Voorhis Associates will evaluate all the suggested capacity solutions and propose new ones, along with providing analysis of the advantages and disadvantages, costs and feasibility of each option.

But Patrick said he thinks the study will duplicate efforts by Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin, who has been looking for solutions to the jail capacity problem for years. He was also the lone dissenting vote when the board decided to issue the request for proposal for a jail capacity assessment in April.

“I think Sheriff Bergin has worked on a number of the issues that were put out in that contract,” said Patrick. “For me, he has answered the question sufficiently.”

Last year, Bergin commissioned a $78,000 feasibility study to assess whether the current jail could be retrofitted to add beds to the downstairs floor, a possible solution that was presented to the board in January.

Added to the current 60 beds in the existing jail on the upper level, the proposed remodel would provide close to the 150 beds recommended in other studies.

The problem of jail capacity has been discussed for years. The jail over-crowding problem has resulted in criminals being turned loose after serving only a fraction of their sentences.

But in 2002, voters rejected a $15 million bond measure for the construction of a new jail facility.

In the past, the commission has explored the option of housing inmates in the new Columbia County Jail in St. Helens, but Bergin and Patrick oppose that idea.

“It’s not cost effective,” said Patrick. “In addition to the operation costs, you have more transportation costs because you’re transporting people back and forth for court, medical appointments, all kinds of stuff. … It will cost us money in the long run and we lose the jobs in the county.”

But Commissioner Patricia Roberts said with all the possible solutions that have been explored it’s hard for county leaders to compare them all and pick the best one. The new study will help the board make the right decision and justify it to the taxpayers, she said.

“Now we’ll have somebody from outside come in and look at all these different options – not redoing studies, but evaluating which ones fit us best or which parts of the various ideas are most effective,” Roberts said. “It’s not duplicating any of the studies. It’s recognizing the wonderful option that the sheriff was able to develop for the ground level of existing jail and comparing that to other ideas that have come forward.”

In other business, the board:

? approved the formation of the Clatsop Forestry and Wood Products Economic Development Committee, a subset of the disbanded Clatsop Economic Development Council that will now exist on its own. The committee, whose membership will stay the same, will share information about wood and paper products, forest management, land use and other issues with community leaders and the public.

? approved the settlement of the Measure 37 claim for the Meriwethers Bay Estates subdivision, which had been challenged by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development.

Two years ago, the commission approved a Measure 37 request from the Aspmos to build up to 20 home lots on their 86-acre parcel south of Astoria in the unincorporated Lewis and Clark area. According to county principal planner Patrick Wingard, the state appealed the county’s decision based in part on fire safety issues arising from houses being built near forestland and also challenged the number and size of planned lots within the subdivision.

DLCD recently reached an agreement with claimants Beverly and Gary Aspmo that addresses the state’s concerns.

? Passed an amendment to the Clatsop County Land and Water Development and Use Ordinance requested by Michael Kotaniemi and Shari Paredes-Moyer of KomPac LLC. The changes clarify contradictory language in the existing ordinance to allow commercial development such as hotels, motels and lodges in the Rural Community Commercial zones in unincorporated areas of Arch Cape, Svensen, Miles Crossing and Jeffers Gardens.

? Donated $500 to the Sept. 27 Clatsop Housing Solutions Conference, as requested by conference chairwoman Crystal Elcon-Weston.