Editorial

Wait and see is right answer ... for now

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

On the face of it, the solution is obvious. The county needs a jail. For safety and security reasons, the fire department, police station and dispatching center shouldn't be right alongside the railroad tracks.

So, lets put up a new building and move them all in together. Simple, right?

Hardly.

The City Council took the right action Monday night, agreeing to participate in Phase II of jail study with Red Willow County, a study that won't cost the city anything and to which the city has no formal commitment.

Phase II seeks input from the council on a joint law enforcement facility that would house the new jail, the Sheriff's Office, McCook Police Department, a communications center and possibly the McCook Fire Department.

Phase II is also called the Programming Phase, where issues such as site selection, number of beds, staffing and operational and maintenance costs will be hammered out before the architects go to work.

But Phil Lyons had good reason for casting his lone vote against the study. For one thing, as Mayor Dennis Berry pointed out, the city isn't in the jail business. While the city does maintain a holding facility, it is up to the country to provide a traditional jail.

In the face of a $17 million water project, pushing through a jail project that might, as Lyons contended, cost the taxpayers an extra $1.8 million over the course of 20 years, would be a hard sell.

But county officials don't think it will be wise to continue hauling prisoners to other counties, which will continue escalating in cost and, at times, may not even be possible because of crowded jails.

At some point, it probably will be time for the county to bite the bullet and build. At that point, if the city has an opportunity to join in the project and create a more efficient system, it should do so. But there are no guarantees. For now, keeping our options open is the best option.

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