The Greene County Board of Supervisors are looking toward an election for a new county jail.
The current eight-cell jail facility that’s located at 204 South Chestnut Street was built in the 1970s and Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams told the Supervisors at their meeting on Monday that the facility is not up to state code, but they have been grandfathered in, due to the age of the facility and being in compliance with codes back then.
Supervisor Chair John Muir says he wasn’t on board with the idea of a new jail at first, but through the reinvention of the sheriff’s office and a county attorney prosecuting criminals to serve jail time, he noticed a new jail facility needed to be a part of that plan. He points out purchasing the former Midland Power Cooperative building on East Lincoln Way to be used as the new administrative building was the beginning steps of that process.
“We decided with the additional land out there that was maybe the appropriate time to start making the transition to a new facility, a more modern facility, a better facility. That investment is needing to be made to make that next step and I’d say complete a whole transition of the law enforcement system here in Greene County.”
Heidi Kuhl with Northland Securities gave three options for a new jail and the Board was leaning toward a $12 million, 24-cell facility. They also wanted to explore issuing a general obligation, non-essential purpose bonds that would require at least 60-percent majority voter passage. Kuhl said the possible taxes for a $12 million facility would be $1.05 per $1,000 of property valuation. Muir explains why they are targeting November for the bond referendum to be on the ballot.
“We need to find out what the public thinks. If the public feels it’s not time to build a jail, well here’s what our alternatives are going to be. And if we lose the ability to use our jail, the cost to house just a minimum of the prisons is going to be, I’m going to say $500,000 per year, pretty easy. And that’s not really gaining any ground on what we need to be doing as far as people serving their sentences.”
The next step for the Supervisors is to confirm the cost estimates with the selected engineering firm ISG before going forward to publish a notice to call for an election in November.