Criminals beware — the referendum for a new $13.9 million Story County Justice Center was approved last Tuesday by an overwhelming majority.

It was unofficially approved by 13,665 votes for the bond issue, which made up about 60.5 percent of the votes, said Story County Auditor Judy Emmons.

The new building will be called a justice center rather than a courthouse because it is going to house many additional features, said Fred Mathison, member of the Story County Board of Supervisors.

“The full Story County court system will be located in this building,” Mathison said. “It will also contain a 98-bed jail, offices for the sheriff’s department, county attorney and judges, and the whole juvenile court system.”

The rationale for a new justice center is lack of space, Emmons said.

“Many court cases have gone to different counties because we haven’t had the space available,” she said.

Mathison agreed with Emmons’ assessment of the current courthouse.

“We have to rent space in Ames for some judges’ offices and for the juvenile court system because there isn’t enough space in Nevada,” he said.

Emmons and Mathison credit the success of the referendum to a group called Leadership Nevada.

“This referendum was voted on in February and failed, so we needed a group to reduce the spread of ‘no’ votes, which is exactly what they did,” Mathison said. “They did a great job of gaining support for the referendum by keeping voters positive about it.”

The county has received a bond for $12.7 million for use toward the cost of the justice center, Mathison said.

“The difference of the cost will come from other sources,” Mathison said. “These sources will most likely be cash reserves in the county.”

The new building will be located on the southeast side of Nevada, across the street from the Fareway grocery store at 517 K Ave., he said.

An architect has been hired to design the building, but the Story County Board of Supervisors has not yet started the bidding for a construction crew.

“Hopefully, the construction of the building will start in June or July,” Mathison said.

Mathison estimates it will probably take two years before they can move into the building and begin using it.