Labeled “Public Measure VS,” the issue received 2,829 yes votes or roughly 55 percent of the ballots cast. The measure needed to receive 60 percent yes votes to pass.

Webster County Sheriff Luke Fleener acknowledged that it was a “big ask” from the county’s voters.

“We did our best to educate the voters and clearly they’re not ready to make that commitment,” he said. “We’ll keep doing our duties the best that we can.”

Fleener has been working with a West Des Moines consulting firm for the last two and a half years to look into whether Webster County needs a new jail to replace the 40-year-old jail on the third floor of the Law Enforcement Center. The results of a jail study from The Samuels Group were clear — the current Webster County Jail is not meeting the county’s needs and is hemorrhaging taxpayer money.

The current jail has a capacity of 56 inmates, but the county averages 75 to 90 inmates in custody at any given time, Fleener previously told The Messenger. Because of this, Fleener has to rent space in other counties’ jails to house Webster County’s inmates — an expense costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

In the last five years, the county has spent $1.5 million in housing and transportation costs for these overflow inmates.

For the current fiscal year, external housing costs for inmates account for $350,000 of the Sheriff’s Office budget. Fleener expects that number to increase to $400,000 for the next fiscal year.

“I don’t perceive the outsourcing of our inmates or costs going down, so at some point, the citizens will decide that they don’t want to pay other counties,” he said. “The unfortunate part is the costs aren’t going to go away — we’re still going to have to pay other people to house our inmates. At some point we’ll have to address it (again).”

He noted that with the expense of housing inmates in other counties increasing year after year, it will begin to eat into the county’s budget and it will be the other county departments that suffer.

“We would like to thank everyone who exercised their right to vote,” Chairwoman Niki Conrad said on behalf of the Webster County Board of Supervisors. “We’d also like to congratulate all of the candidates, not only who were elected, but also who ran for office.”