PENDLETON — Umatilla County is lobbying the Oregon Legislative Emergency Board in Salem to OK a $1.6 million renovation to its jail using funds intended to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock.

“At this point in time we are appealing to the E-Board because we think this is a legitimate COVID expense to provide for the health and safety of our inmates,” Murdock said.

The county’s lobbying efforts for the state funding to renovate the interior of the Umatilla County Jail in Pendleton dates back to 2017, with the primary intention of creating better accommodations for inmates facing medical issues, drug addiction and or mental illness.

“It was designed from Day 1 to provide ways of isolating our prisoners in the very areas where we haven’t had the luxury or opportunity to distance them,” Murdock said.

Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan said the intake of inmates at the jail means there’s a risk for potential exposure to the virus “every day,” but so far there hasn’t been significant problems with managing COVID-19 at the facility.

“There’s only one incident that I’m aware of where a person tested positive days before their arrest,” Rowan said.

Rowan said the individual wasn’t exhibiting symptoms and was able to be isolated for the few days they were held at the jail prior to their release.

Each individual who is arrested and lodged at the jail is screened for symptoms prior to entering the facility, Rowan said, and the current detox and isolation areas at the jail are utilized whenever somebody reports a symptom or previous exposure to a confirmed case.

“We try and use our best judgement,” Rowan said.

The appeal to Salem comes on the heels of repeated pressure from state legislators and local county and city officials to Gov. Kate Brown and the Emergency Board, which is tasked with funneling funds from the federal coronavirus relief package into the state’s COVID response, to release additional funds still left unused to local governments.

The county has already poured $189,524 into the planning stage of the project, which Murdock said was “nearly completed” on Tuesday, Sept. 1. That investment was expected to be reimbursed but the entirety of the state funding was nixed due to shortfalls in the sale of lottery bonds brought on by the pandemic.

The Oregon Legislature originally approved the jail project, among other capital projects throughout the state, back in 2019. But restaurant and bar closures sunk revenues usually generated through video poker at those establishments and the state ultimately called off bond sales earlier this year.

That jeopardized roughly $273 million in capital projects in Oregon, though some were still funded despite the limited revenue.

Murdock and the county had hoped its initial investments and preparations would allow the jail project to be one of those the state selected to keep its prescribed funding. Despite the state passing the project up the first time, Murdock hopes the progress and effort already made on behalf of the county will lead to more favorable consideration in Salem moving forward.

“I would like to think that since it’s almost a shovel-ready project that they would look kindly at us,” Murdock said.

While Murdock said he’s been given some assurances that the jail will be one of the first projects considered in Salem whenever the state lottery bond budget recovers, he doesn’t want to bank on that.

“A lot of things could happen politically between now and then,” he said.