Despite previous reports that it would shut down with the opening of the new consolidate 911 center, officials in Columbia Falls now say their jail will stay open as a daily facility.
Columbia Falls Police Chief Dave Perry said the jail will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and act as place to hold prisoners being transferred to and from the county jail in Kalispell.
The jail was initially slated to close entirely because the city’s emergency dispatchers also act as jailers via a camera system that allows them to watch the prisoners. If a problem occurred, police officers would be called to handle it.
To pay for part of its share of the 911 center, Columbia Falls used the funds that pay its local dispatchers, Perry said in November. Most of the Columbia Falls dispatchers will transfer to the new county facility.
Flathead County voters passed a $6.9 million bond to pay for the new 11,800-square-foot 911 emergency center, which should be open by mid-March.