SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – Sioux City and Woodbury County officials are working to address a problem related to the location of the new Law Enforcement Center.
The new facility is in a rural area of Sioux City, not downtown. That means there are fewer options nearby that offer public transportation. People who are appearing for court dates, recently released inmates, or people in a jury who rely on public transportation, would have to walk about two and a half miles from the LEC building to the next nearest bus stop on Floyd Boulevard.
“Right now, we have no city public transportation that goes to and from, where the new law enforcement Center is located,” said Sioux City City Council Member, Dan Moore. “So, I think we’re going to exhaust everything before we actually get the options on the table for everyone to see.”
Dan Moore, Assistant City Manager Mike Collett, and Woodbury County Supervisor Matthew Ung met Monday afternoon to talk about how the city can best provide transportation to the new LEC. Ung says he understands the need exists and wants to address it.
“There are people that are going to need to report for jury trials. And so we want to respect that there is going to be a need there, and the only other option is walking a couple miles. The city is keen to solve this issue and relied on some information from the county that I provided from our court perspective; from our law enforcement perspective,” said Ung. “Just to give them some insight on what would be ideal.”
“Matthew Ung did bring a rough schedule that he had obtained and received, I believe, from the judicial system, as far as when people needed to arrive at the law enforcement center and when they would probably be departing,” said Moore.
Moore said the city council will discuss this issue at its next budget hearing in January. That discussion would work to get funding for transportation starting in Fiscal Year 2026. In the meantime, Collett has discussed possible solutions with the Siouxland Regional Transit System – SRTS.
“It could be temporary, but it could also be permanent depending on the numbers of people that need to use the services. I mean, the SRTS bus is almost perfect for smaller groups being transported,” said Moore. “If we did go that route, whether it would be temporary, or whether it would be just a system that would really work well, we would have to enter into a separate contract with SRTS. Because they have many rules and regulations to follow with the Department of Transportation, and I believe, some federal statutory rules as well.”
Though there has been a lot of optimism from members of the county and city board, nothing has been confirmed yet.
Officials say that they’ll continue to work until they can find a solution; and Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan has said the county wouldn’t let this issue delay the opening of the LEC building.
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