Rising court caseloads and a growing population are driving Lincoln County officials to consider spending tens of millions of dollars to beef up public safety infrastructure.

But competing proposals about how best to add courtrooms and law enforcement space – and potentially a long-sought jail –  have some county commissioners in South Dakota’s third largest county at odds.

Lincoln County earlier this year hired Minneapolis-based Tegra Group to lead the planning process on a complex billed as a “justice center,” which would house the sheriff’s office, state’s attorney’s office and courtrooms. 

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