Natrona County may need to scrap hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of studies and designs for a regional juvenile detention center because state officials want smaller county facilities, county commissioners and architects said Tuesday.

"No matter how we change this, there's going to be a lot of redesign," said architect Rob Schaush of the Casper firm Amundsen Associates.

Redesigning a smaller and cheaper juvenile detention center is not as simple as shrinking the square footage or eliminating internal facilities, Schaush and Gerald Amundsen said at a work session.

"We're going to be scrapping a lot of stuff and starting over," Amundsen said.

And the plans they've drawn for a $12.6 million 32- to 36-bed regional facility probably would cost Natrona County only about $400,000 over two budget cycles more than a scaled back 24-bed facility, commissioner Matt Keating said.

Commissioner Barb Peryam said she has not learned whether the county will be compensated for the money it has spent so far for architects' and other plans.

The county needs to build a satellite facility of the main adult jail on Bruce Lane to replace the inadequate juvenile detention center on the third floor of the Hall of Justice. The county has saved about $3 million so far, commissioned studies including one funded by a federal grant, and hired Amundsen Associates to design a regional center.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal has expressed support for the county's plans. In early September, he announced Wyoming had received $15 million of the federal stimulus package, and $8 million of that was expected to be applied to the county's new juvenile detention center.

Two weeks ago, county officials met with Freudenthal and Freudenthal's juvenile justice advisor, retired judge Gary Hartman, with the latter suggesting the county may not receive any stimulus money if it insisted on building the larger facility.

Hartman did not return a call seeking comment.

Some commissioners balked, but realized that no money was worse than insisting on the larger juvenile detention center.

Since then, they've found the smaller facility might not be that much cheaper after all.

For example, if the 24-bed facility has no medical holding cells, Sheriff Mark Benton told commissioners he probably would need to hire an additional deputy to transport ill inmates to the hospital, and guard them there.

Peryam said the savings realized by not having medical holding cells will be offset by the extra personnel cost. "I don't think [Freudenthal] cares if you have to hire a deputy," she said.

Peryam also insisted that a juvenile detention center have a visiting area for incarcerated youth and their parents.

Parts of the scaled-down version will require nearly as much work whether the center is for county or regional youth, Schaush and Amundsen said.

To comply with the governor's wishes, the architects have proposed eliminating an entire wing of the detention center that would have been built by a hill near the adult jail.

However, Schaush and Amundsen said construction crews still will need to level that area for drainage and build a retaining wall whether or not the juvenile detention center has the additional wing.

Amundsen added his firm designed the proposed center to comply with the state's requirements for juvenile justice.

"Everything was designed based on compliance, now they want to cut it out," he said.

Schaush and Amundsen said they did not know the amount the county has paid for their and others' designs.

But they intend to have those figures next week when they and county officials meet with state officials about plans for the juvenile detention center, they said. The meeting will occur at 1 p.m. on Nov. 6, in the county's new meeting room, which was the former main courtroom on the second floor of the old Natrona County Courthouse.

Commissioner Terry Wingerter complimented their work so far, and apologized for the change in plans.

"I feel sorry for what we've put you through," he said.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com.