TILLAMOOK – Construction that will relieve crowding and improve educational opportunities at the Oregon Youth Authority’s two Tillamook facilities is expected to be completed in July.

2KG Contractors Inc. of Milwaukie won the contract to relocate the existing Trask River High School, currently in separate locations, into an unfinished building on the campus. The project will double the building’s square footage by constructing six classrooms, restrooms, administrative offices and central control and camera monitoring.

Existing Tillamook facilities are crowded. Some staff members’ offices are in an old control room or hallway, long-term youth property is stored in the main entrance corridor, and clinic and psychiatric services have insufficient space.

The $761,530 project, financed by Go Oregon! stimulus funds, will help OYA fulfill its mission of protecting the public and reducing crime by holding youth offenders accountable and providing opportunities for reformation in safe environments. Education is key to successful transition back to the community. By using the unfinished building, officials said, the agency saved approximately $500,000 in construction costs.

The school serves youth housed in the Tillamook Youth Correctional Facility and the adjacent Camp Tillamook transitional facility, which serve 50 and 25 male offenders, respectively. The accredited high school provides 5.5 hours of instruction 220 days a year leading to high school credits, high school diplomas or, in the case of high school graduates, skills improvement to prepare for higher education or employment.

The project’s architect was DLR Group Architecture and Planning Inc. in Portland.

The Tillamook school project is the second-largest among OYA’s $9.2 million in state stimulus-funded projects. The largest is construction of a 7,200-square-foot young women’s transitional home in Albany to replace Corvallis House, which closed last year.

OYA has custody of approximately 900 youth offenders ages 12-24 in correctional and transitional facilities in Albany, Burns, Florence, Grants Pass, La Grande, Salem, Tillamook, Warrenton and Woodburn. The agency also supervises approximately 1,100 youth on parole and probation in communities throughout Oregon.