PROVO — There was some good news. And then there was some bad news.

It was just that kind of day at the Utah County Commission headquarters.

But the good news, however, was for Utah Valley taxpayers.

The bad, for the county's criminal element.

County commissioners approved a $42 million bond issuance Tuesday that will allow expansion of the county jail to move forward while restructuring existing bonds — about $22 million— in a way that will save taxpayers $367,000 in interest payments over the next eight years.

The county received an AA rating for the bonds — the highest possible for a county with less than 750,000 residents — which attracted a 3.836 interest rate.

With some $16 million or so now earmarked for the jail expansion, plans will continue to move ahead.

Commissioner Steve White said an architect has been retained to design the addition with construction targeted to commence this fall to meet a January 2007 opening for the addition.

The project will increase the jail's maximum capacity from 766 to approximately 1,160.

Referring to the favorable bond issue, White said, "It's like the interest rates are backwards right now. The short-term rates are low and the long-term rates are high. The rates for federal treasury bills have been below 4 percent only 10 months out of the past 40 years, and we don't expect that to last much longer."

In other action Tuesday, the commission killed a proposed ordinance that would have required homes in outlying areas of the county to install fire sprinklers if the structures exceeded 6,000 square feet or failed to have a set minimum water flow available for fighting fires.

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