The whole story on the new county jail

Dear Editor,

I am writing to address the issues surfacing about the proposed Red Willow County Law Enforcement Center.

In November of 2010 when the citizens gave the City of McCook the go-ahead to build a much-needed new facility, they also gave approval that there would no longer be a jail facility in our community.

By statute, it is the responsibility of counties to house prisoners. Because of this public decision, it has forced the county commissioners to make difficult decisions on how to take care of this responsibility in the future.

Due to this issue, the commissioners decided in 2011 to appoint a new jail task force committee. This committee worked with Prochaska and Associates, an architectural firm to go back and re-evaluate and update the Jail Study that was performed in 2006. During this process, the group looked at many different areas including sites, costs, inmate numbers, and the overall feasibility.

As the group worked through the many different options that were initially discussed, it became very apparent that building a new facility would ultimately be the best option. During this process the group did look into renovating the city's old facility, but realized that it was cost-prohibitive due to all the construction costs involved with remodeling of old existing buildings. The group also looked into building a small holding facility similar in size to what the city currently has, but the cost for this was estimated at $3,323,380 and would still have required us to transport prisoners for the long-term.

In addition, a Greenfield site which continues to be brought up, was studied.

The estimated cost for this was $5,972,160, which did not include site acquisition or prisoner transportation back and forth to court. In the end, it was decided that the best option would be to build next to the courthouse for an estimated cost of $5,105,830, which also did not include site acquisition but in this case, the county did already own two of the three properties needed.

When we go into operational costs, the key thing that has continued to be ignored is the fact that once the city moves into their new facility, our operational cost will instantly increase to numbers that are comparable to operating a facility of our own. This will be due to the added transportation cost of going to a 24/7 operation.

As we looked at what the costs are to operate a facility, we compared numbers from counties with similar sized facilities. These numbers were then compared and inflated from the numbers of the 2006 study, and showed our projected starting cost would be at $500,000.

We also acquired information from the City of McCook on what their yearly costs are. These numbers showed that their annual operational costs were at $500,000 per year. This number was based on 10 people and building expenses.

This would also require us to continue to contract bed spaces from other counties at the current expended rate of $300,000 per year. As you can see, the feasibility of taking over this old facility would costs us in excess of $800,000 per year. Due to these numbers, it only makes sense to own and operate a facility so we can fulfill our responsibility for many years to come.

As we look at the ballot question on the bond payment, there is nothing illegal or constitutionally wrong with what is being asked. What we want is for the citizens to tell us how they would like the county to re-pay these bonds that will be issued.

A vote "for" would allow this payment to be made with a separate levy outside of the 50-cent lid limit. This levy would then go away at the end of the payment schedule. A vote against would force the county to budget this bond payment within our 50-cent lid limit, which could create future issues depending on what Legislature or the federal government decides they might want to try and take away from us.

An example of what this will do to your taxes is: On a $100,000 home at a 0.0450 levy, it would come to an additional $45 per year or $3.75 per month. This would be a rate of $0.12 cents per day.

The bottom line is this is a much-needed project due to the situation the county has been placed in. County government has always been very conservative and always will be.

We are not asking for an open checkbook, but are simply trying to solve a problem and take care of our responsibility.

This facility will be an enhancement to our community and a step toward the future.

I hope this community will finally come together and work for all. We need to unite and work together to build for future generations. This is one more step in that direction.

Thank You

Earl McNutt

Red Willow County

Commissioner