Request for Proposal for new jail passes at County Board meeting – What does that mean?

On Tuesday night, December 16, 2025, the Fond du Lac County Board of Supervisors voted 14-10 in favor to continue the steps towards, at the very least, building a new county jail, and the continuation of exploring options of a new sheriff’s office and justice center on the outskirts of town.

The step voted on Tuesday, in front of an almost full house of the public, which usually is missing from such meetings, was a “Request for Proposal” to bring in experts to decide what would be best for building the new jail and where.

The process took about 2 1/2 hours at the meeting, with many of the board members seeming just as confused about what was going on in the process as the public became last week after a couple people brought the worst case scenario cost situation to light on social media.

The reason for the confusion is a problem that seems to be unique to the county, with the bottom line being the current jail is not up to standards with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, and hasn’t been for a couple years, and a new one needs to be constructed.

The problem seems to snowball with each solution.

If the jail is built next to the current one on Western Avenue, it looks likely that it won’t be big enough for what a consultant said was recommended for a Fond du Lac County jail, which is 450 beds. The easy alternative is to build it out on land the county acquired on Hickory Road, just south of the City of Fond du Lac near the new Highway Department.

This leads to a whole new set of problems however. Judges with the county say having the jail so far away from the courts would be very problematic, so the idea to build a new courthouse with the jail comes to the surface. At that point, if the county is taking that much away from the City County Government building, why not just start from scratch and build a whole new justice center out at the new location. A complex that could serve the county for “70 years”, one person speaking brought up.

While this sounds perfect on paper, when the cost for such a complex is brought up, it frightens both County Board members and the public, as it should. It’s a lot of money that board member Mary Hayes showed in a graph would give Fond du Lac County the highest percent of allowable debt used, and the highest per capita debt of any Wisconsin county by almost double the next closest county’s debt.

While this wasn’t the discussion of the night, it was clear the fear of treading even close to a situation like this, caused some members to not even want to have a firm come in and at least explore options, even if it is for a new jail, only across the street from the old one.

However after what seemed like the board going in circles all night, trying to make heads or tails what was being presented on to vote for, the resolution did manage to squeak by in favor of the request for proposal. That is after it was amended slightly by board member Anglea luehering to ensure it included options downtown.

After a Request for Proposal has been issued and the responses collected, the next steps in the process focus on evaluation, selection, negotiation, and contract finalization. At that time a decision will be made what gets built and where.

Stay tuned….