Mower County officials broke ground Thursday on a new courthouse they are calling the Mower County Jail and Justice Center.

“The destruction has gone on for six months now. Let the construction begin,” said County Commissioner Dave Tollefson at Thursday morning’s ceremony.

Tollefson welcomed guests to the corner of Second Avenue and First Street Northeast.

A new two-story, 128-bed jail with judicial offices and court rooms will be built on two blocks of downtown property acquired by the city of Austin between Second and Fourth avenues and First and Second streets Northeast.

A third block — Second to Third Avenues Northeast and First to Second Streets Northeast — was acquired and cleared by the county to make way for a geothermal well field to heat and cool the building.

The existing Mower County jail is a 90-day lockup and the county has been forced to board-out prisoners in neighboring counties.

The county board appointed a jail task force to study the overcrowding issues eight years ago.

When the committee reached its conclusion, it recommended building a new jail and to move all related court, court administration, county attorney and correctional services offices to the same building.

The county board accepted the recommendation, but a protracted battle over the new facilities ensued until the county commissioners partnered with the city of Austin to locate it in the downtown area.

Wearing hard hats and armed with gold painted shovels, officials dug the ceremonial first scoops of dirt from the site, where the $30.7 million project will be built.

Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm began his remarks saying, “No one wants to spend millions to build a jail. No one wants to raise taxes.”

But Stiehm, a retired career Austin police detective, said the facilities will put a “new face on downtown Austin.”

District Judge Donald E. Rysavy expressed the appreciation of district court, court administration and others to the commissioners for ending the eight-year-long dialog over jail over-crowding and court security issues.

The new facilities, which will have three courtrooms for judges’ use,  are expected to last for 50 years and have the capability of being expanded.

KKE Architects, Inc. and Knutson Construction Services, Inc. representatives also spoke.

One of the compelling factors in the county commissioners’ decision to proceed was the “attractive” bids for the project and the number of contracts awarded to Schammel Electric, Harty Mechanical Services and The Joseph Company, all local contractors.

 The facilities are expected to be open sometime in late 2010.