Judge Denies Bid to Halt Construction of New Jail : Corrections: Project foes allege that environmental studies were inadequate. Any delay could have killed the project, a county official says.

A Superior Court judge Monday denied an attempt by an environmental group to temporarily halt construction of a new county jail near Santa Paula.

Any delay effectively could have killed the $52-million jail project, Assistant County Counsel Robert E. Orellana said.

The stay was sought by Citizens to Save Our Greenbelt, pending the resolution of a lawsuit to block the project because of allegations that the environmental studies on the impact of the jail were inadequate.

The group’s attorney, Marilyn Woodlock, said the county should proceed with construction “at its own risk.”

“It’s not over yet by any means,” Woodlock said.

Melinda Wiman, a board member of the environmental group, said the decision “doesn’t set us back at all. It only encourages us to move forward even quicker.” She said the group will seek to expedite a hearing in the lawsuit.

Orellana said the county expects to prevail in the lawsuit.

“We’re extremely confident that we have done everything correctly by the environmental regulations,” he said.

In his three-paragraph ruling, Superior Court Judge Edwin M. Osborne gave no reason for his decision.

Orellana said a delay may have forced the county to miss a Sept. 17 deadline set by the California Board of Corrections for issuing a construction contract. He said the county will forfeit nearly $11 million in state bond monies if it misses the deadline.

“Without that, we’re dead,” Orellana said. The state is expected to provide $31 million of the total cost of the jail.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors is expected to award the construction contract Aug. 11, Orellana said.

Arthur Goulet, director of public works, said 11 companies have bid on the project. The bids have ranged from $32.2 million to $34.8 million.

Woodlock said the county’s claims that the project would be imperiled were raised at the last minute. But Orellana disagreed. He said Woodlock knew of the county’s position five days prior to a June 27 hearing before Judge Osborne.

In requesting the stay, Woodlock argued that the use of a dry riverbed as a construction route was environmentally unsound. The riverbed is used by a firm that is grading the site in preparation for construction.

But Orellana said the county argued that using an alternative route would have been more expensive and dangerous and would have had more serious environmental effects.

The county would have had to pay a private landowner $31,000 to use the alternative route, he said. That route is twice as long as the riverbed road, requiring the use of more gasoline, and the trucks would have had to travel on public roads, increasing the danger to motorists.

The jail will be built on 157 acres of farmland in a greenbelt between Santa Paula and Ventura. Designed to hold 752 inmates, the new jail will supplement the county’s existing jail, which now holds more than double its capacity of 440 inmates.