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Relief is on the way for crowded jail conditions in Guilford County.

Voters' approval of a $114.6 million bond referendum Tuesday means the existing jail will be renovated and a new one will be built behind it.

The proposal passed by a margin of about 2,500 votes and two percentage points, according to complete but unofficial returns.

Sheriff BJ Barnes said the passage means that Guilford will have space for 962 more inmates and sufficient room through at least 2025. Bids for construction could be received in January 2009, and ground could be broken in March.

The jail is to be built directly behind the existing one in a county-owned parking lot between Blandwood Avenue and Edgeworth Street.

Barnes was pleasantly surprised by the victory at a time when the economy is uncertain.

"I think the voters recognize what we're trying to get across, and that is that we have a big need," Barnes said.

Crowding at the 33-year-old jail on Eugene Street has been a problem for years. It has space for 397 inmates but routinely houses 500 or more. Barnes said crowding was at a crisis stage and had to be addressed one way or another.

Among four questions on the bond ballot not related to Guilford County's secondary schools, voters also endorsed a $79.5 million proposal for a new GTCC campus in western Guilford and improvements to its original Jamestown site.

But they rejected $20.2 million for county parks by a margin of 5,000 votes and resoundingly defeated a proposed one-fourth-cent increase in the sales tax.

Most voters interviewed said they had voted against at least one of the bond proposals, many mentioning the difficult economic times as a factor.

"I appreciate our parks, but I just don't feel like that is a priority with all the other issues we have," Greensboro voter Jim Chandler said after voting against the recreation proposal but in favor of everything else.

Another voter at Lindley Recreation Center said she cast her only "no" vote against the jail because the legal system does not work effectively in its use of jails and prisons.

"I'm not a huge fan of our system," Stephanie Patton said. "I don't think we need more."

But the majority clearly shared the sentiments of Greensboro voter McKenzie Smith, who said she believes it is important to keep a community moving forward.

"I think it's important for a community to create a positive situation with parks and improved education facilities and the jail," Smith said.

GTCC's bond package centered on building a $50.5 million campus near Oak Ridge to focus on the transportation industry, moving products effectively through the distribution chain.

The school owns 100 acres at the site but wanted the bond money to build the campus that also would offer training programs for Triad companies.

The bond also will build a $12 million parking deck at the original Jamestown campus, as well as make $9 million in renovations to that campus.

Money for the county park system would have relieved crowding on Bryan Park athletics fields with $6 million in improvements, including seven soccer and lacrosse fields.

It also would have expanded several greenways and made $5 million in improvements to Hagan-Stone Park.

Taxpayers rejected a sales-tax increase in no uncertain terms, with nearly three of every four voters going against it.

The vote stemmed from a decision by the General Assembly last year allowing counties to levy the additional tax. Guilford administrators said the move would raise about $15.4 million per year that they said would be used to lower property taxes.

Archdale voters had the only other question among the bond projects: whether they wanted to allow restaurants, hotels and other such places to serve mixed drinks. They defeated the proposal with 30 voters against it and 24 in favor.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com