Plan a good start to future

Douglas County was settled by thrifty people made more so by a lack of resources. They followed the farmer's code of make it do or do without.

That might be the battle cry for the county's capital improvement plan presented to commissioners at their Oct. 18 meeting. Increased costs have forced county staff to come up with some different ways of meeting the county's future facility needs.

As much as the Town of Minden would like a garage, the plans for the county's "garage-mahal" were far from affordable.

Increased construction costs will require the county to skip the three-story garage for additional surface parking and find new ways to use the space in the Minden Inn.

A proposal to purchase the Department of Motor Vehicles building on County Road and move offices of the East Fork Fire & Paramedic Districts there will relieve some of the parking pressure for Esmeralda Avenue businesses. It will also place the district's administrators right across the street from Station 14, thereby centralizing some of their functions.

The most critical issue in the plan is expansion of the county jail. Commissioners took the first step in the right direction when they approved $2.2 million for the first phase of the jail expansion. No matter how unhappy Minden businesses are about losing the garage, it's unlikely they will file a federal lawsuit. However, Douglas County has the jail it has because it lost a federal lawsuit. Better to plan for the expansion than to be forced to build it at the end of a gavel.

Here's hoping the county sticks to the plan, building only where needed and making do where required.