Now that Ellis County voters have approved the half-cent sales tax, with 82 percent of the voters approving the tax on Tuesday, the construction phase of the project is set to begin.

Ellis County Administrator Greg Sund said the first step of the $14.3 million project is finalizing a design. Sund said, “We have the preliminary drawings of what these could look like, but now you have to do all the detail work with the architects.”

The county has two different architectural firms they are working with. “The first step is going to be, with one of them is to do the EMS/Rural Fire building and the other one obviously does the courthouse and the jail,” Sund said.

The sales tax will take effect no sooner than Oct. 1. It is scheduled to end in five years or when the project is paid off, whichever comes sooner.