Jail project discussed by council (09/11/2008)

On the road to November's referendum, architects from SchenkelShultz Architecture took time to discuss a proposed jail project in great detail at Wednesday night's Jay County Council meeting.

Although there was a crowd for the meeting, that crowd was mostly composed of high school students attending to meet class requirements.

SchenkelSchultz representatives Jeff Badders, Dave Sholl and Doug Routh spoke about the jail expansion for nearly an hour in a continuing effort to raise awareness for the project that will come with a $10 million bond and raise property taxes about 11.5 cents per $100 of assessed value.

"The existing jail is deficient," Sholl said. "It generally just needs some upgrades."

The team of speakers highlighted the familiar problems such as lack of space for administration, prisoners and storage, as well as general staffing inefficiency.

While Badders was explaining, he described some of the current jail's infrastructure as "not only worn out, but inefficient," a statement that applies to several parts of the aging jail and is a major reason for the expansion.

Sholl took a generous amount of time to go through the floor plans, explaining how the old jail will be utilized and how the pod-style housing area in the new portion of the building will allow for better surveillance of prisoners with fewer workers.

"It's not only what it costs, but what it costs to operate," Badders said, describing how the plans will double the size of the jail but will only require a few new additional staff members. The new circular housing area will allow one jailor to monitor prisoners from a second-floor station in the center of the cellblocks.

With a current population of about two and a half prisoners per 1,000 people in the county and a projection of four per 1,000 by the year 2030, the expanded jail would be able to meet those projected needs with about 25 beds to spare.

The current jail has about 55 beds for inmates. The proposed project would include space for about 100 inmates. Cellblocks in the current jail area would be converted for use in work release and other programs.

Jay County Sheriff Ray Newton said he is planning to hold open houses where residents can tour the current facility during the first and second Saturdays in October. Newton has continually said he will show the jail to anyone if asked and thinks people will better understand the issue if they see the conditions first hand.

In other business Wednesday night, the Jay County Council:

•Approved the first reading of the 2009 budget with no additional comments or changes. The second reading is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24.

•Approved additional appropriations including: $5,000 to the backhoe repair fund for the surveyor's office; $8,500 to the Jay County Emergency Medical Services for fuel expenses; $3,079.29 to the cooperative extension office to cover costs incurred after the recent retirement of an office employee; $5,691.60 to the public defender for pauper counsel expenses.

•Approved a document limiting yearly pension payments to a sheriff's department employee to $160,000 a year. Although no employee will come close to that high of a pension in Jay County, Elaine Beaty of McCready and Keen Inc. explained the federal government wants local governments to adopt the document.

•Tabled a document on Deferred Retirement Option Program presented by Beaty for further review. The program would allow sheriff's department employees to set a future retirement date and have their earned retirement money from the current date until retirement placed into a savings, which they would receive as a lump sum upon leaving the force. The council had no objections to approving the program, but wanted to wait until next month to further research the plan.

•Motioned to send a job description to the county's personnel consultant Kent Irwin before approving an intention to bump one of the part-time employees in the assessor's office to full-time status.[[In-content Ad]]