Consultant outlines potential cost of jail

Red Willow County can expect to spend more than a third of a million dollars a year to operate a jail, commissioners learned Monday.

The board also heard that the county's score on noxious weed control has improved for the third year in a row.

A report from ACI Boland Inc., of Leawood, Kan., and Rock Port, Mo., indicates it would take 10 employees to staff a proposed 40-bed jail facility. Staffing expenses are estimated at $263,130 yearly.

Operating costs include inmate supplies, meals, utilities, cleaning, repairs and maintenance, and are estimated to cost $81,536 a year. That figure does not include insurance, Steve Pierce of ACI wrote in a letter to commissioners. Pierce suggested the county's current insurance carrier may be able to provide an estimate of insurance costs.

Staffing and operations (minus insurance) would total $344,666 yearly.

Pierce estimated a yearly income of $164,250 by housing inmates from other jurisdictions. Commissioners, however, have not wanted to assume that other jurisdictions would use the Red Willow County facility, and have been reluctant to include income from the rental of jail space in any talks about jail expenses and income.

Commission Chairman Earl McNutt said he had guessed it would cost half a million dollars to operate the jail each year, and twice that if the facility were built and operated as a city-county facility.

McNutt pointed out that the jail study is still in its very preliminary stages, and commissioners have made no decisions about a jail.

"We need a whole lot more information," McNutt said, possibly a second study, town hall meetings and a task force of interested citizens.

At the commissioners' meeting March 1, commissioners will further discuss the creation of a task force of citizens interested in helping commissioners gather information and make decisions regarding progress on the jail idea.

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Tom Neill, an inspector with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, gave Red Willow County 3,155 out of 3,400 points -- a 92.8 percent -- for its battle against noxious weeds in 2003.

Red Willow County's score has improved steadily since 2000: 2000, 79.9 percent; 2001, 87.4 percent; and 2002, 87.6 percent.

Neill stressed that there is really no such thing as a perfect score: 3,400 is the minimum score required by law, he said.

Neill said the county still needs to work harder on following up with landowners who have received notices of weed infestations on their land.

In 2002, program director Bill Elliott started issuing 10-day notices to errant landowners, who have 10 days to address their weed problem, or the county sprays and charges labor and materials to the landowner.

Elliott told commissioners that he did indeed mail out 10-day notices in 2003, but did not have to do any forced spraying in the fall.

Red Willow County resident Jim Wesch disagreed with Neill's and Elliott's claims of success and good scores. Wesch wanted to know what would be done differently this year to prevent the county's continuing infestation of musk thistle. "Nothing was done last year," Wesch said, and what was done last year was done only after, he said, he wrote an Open Forum to the McCook Gazette.

Wesch blamed the county's problem -- "fields of musk thistle ... not just a musk thistle here or there -- on "a lackadaisical attitude" on the part of the county and its weed program director Bill Elliott in getting information to landowners.

Wesch named several names -- neighbors whom Wesch resents having done nothing about their musk thistle problem. Wesch said he and many other landowners spend hours in their pastures killing musk thistle. "I resent the neighbors who don't take care of their land," Wesch said.

Elliott told Wesch he had contacted errant landowners before Wesch's letter appeared in the paper, and that files in the county clerk's office would back up that claim.

McNutt said, "We can always do a better job." He added that, although Elliott sends out 10-day notices, the ultimate responsibility for noxious weed control falls on the landowner. "Get at the problem early in the spring," he said.

Commissioners put more money in Elliott's budget for part-time help and forced spraying this year. "The money is there to do it," Elliott said. "We're gaining."

In other action, commissioners:

* Unanimously approved a one-time-only donation of $2,000 to Crime Stoppers to be used to pay rewards for information leading to the arrest(s) and conviction(s) of people vandalizing county road signs and dumping illegally in county road ditches.

* Questioned the county's responsibility for maintenance and repairs on the "VanVleet" NRD flood control dam southeast of Danbury near the state line. Commissioner Steve Downer guessed an ages-old agreement at some time involved the county in the upkeep of this and other NRD dams throughout the county, and suggested commissioners check into the county's current legal responsibilities and liabilities.

* Took no action to renew a three-year contract with OrbitCom for local and long distance telephone service for county telephone lines. OrbitCom's contract reduced local service from $29.95 to $26.95 per line per month, and long distance service from 7.9 cents to 6.9 cents per minute. The county has 38 telephone lines.

Commissioner Leigh Hoyt questioned the wisdom of signing a three-year contract when phone services, features and technology change so frequently. Hoyt suggested the county shop around for other providers of local and long distance phone service.

* Tabled for one week any decision on the Nebraska Department of Economic Development CDBG grant approved for 21st Century Systems. McNutt said NDED paperwork accompanying the grant approval requires a certified grant administrator; no county employee has this certification, nor does Rex Nelson, the new director of the McCook Economic Development Corp. Commissioners recommended that Nelson complete the certification workshop.

* Moved the Southwest Precinct polling place from the High Plains Museum to the District 8 schoolhouse and the Beaver Precinct polling place from the Beaver Valley Fire Barn to the Danbury Community Center.

* Approved the bond of Korey D. Burkert, treasurer of the High Plains Historical Society.

* Accepted monthly and/or financial reports from the fair board, clerk of the district court, sheriff and Extension board officers; and a report of changes to the pledged securities from the county treasurer.

* Forwarded to the Red Willow County Visitors Bureau information on the Route 6 Tourism Association and its request for $200 for a one-year membership in the association.