Commissioners to study jail options

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

Red Willow County commissioners listened to a presentation on jails Monday morning and created a three-person committee responsible for filling the vacancy created by the pending retirement of the county's public defender.

Daniel Rowe and Loren Anderson of Treanor Architects, Topeka, Kan., recommended that commissioners and sheriff's officers attend a National Institute of Corrections school/workshop in Longmont, Colo., before making any decisions about building a jail in Red Willow County.

Sheriff Gene Mahon told the architects Red Willow County pays other counties about $250,000 a year to house Red Willow County prisoners.

Commission Chairman Earl McNutt said, "Unfortunately, the need's always going to be there." McNutt said the money Red Willow County pays to house its prisoners in other counties' jail facilities keeps those facilities going, "but I'm sure our tax payers wonder why that money can't be kept here."

Rowe said a jail is a unique county building because it can generate income to offset its costs. It can't make money, he said, but it can pay for a bulk of the cost of building and operating the facility.

Rowe cautioned against building too big or too small, but added that asking an architect to determine a county's jail needs is something of a conflict of interest. He and Anderson recommended county officials attend the workshop in Longmont to help them determine if, indeed, a jail is needed and, if so, a realistic number of beds and the style of supervision/staffing.

McNutt said commissioners and law enforcement are just in the "thinking stage" of a jail facility and need to study the situation in-depth before making any decisions whether to proceed. McNutt said the idea of county-wide law enforcement -- or, fellow commissioner Steve Downer said, even regional law enforcement -- are concepts worth investigating at the same time.

Sheriff Mahon said as county officials discuss the viability of a jail in Red Willow County, he is looking for more jail housing. "We have six females now," Mahon said, "and beds for four."

Mahon said prisoners have been transported to Lexington and Lincoln recently. "We took one to Lincoln," Mahon said, "because area jails wouldn't take him -- he's too violent." The Lincoln facility is costing Red Willow County tax payers $60+ a day, Mahon said.

Commissioners appointed two attorneys and one lay person to a committee to determine a replacement for Public Defender Bob Conner, who will retire in June.

Committee members are attorneys David Urbom of Arapahoe and Bert Blackwell of McCook and lay person Randall Datus, business manager at McCook Public Schools.

County Attorney Paul Wood said the committee may also investigate the possibility of not having a public defender. Wood said, however, "A public defender system can't help but save money over a rotating system of appointing attorneys."

Commissioners accepted a $30,237 bid from Van Diest Supply Co. of McCook for chemicals to spray on weeds along county roads. Three bids, from three McCook companies, were only $548 apart.

Commissioners had requested bids on 40 gallons of Plateau, 100 gallons of Vanquish, 400 gallons of 2,4-D, 400 gallons of surfactant and 20 gallons of Arsenal.

The bid from UAP Timberland was $30,732.75; the bid from Snyder Sales and Services was $30,785.

McNutt asked that the chemicals be delivered as soon as possible. "If we get a steady spell of nice weather, or even more rain," McNutt said, " things'll grow overnight."

In other action, commissioners: - Approved a request from Qwest to allow the installation of telephone cable across county roads near Red Willow Dairy northeast of McCook.

- Discussed with Maintenance Supervisor Greg Holthus the cost of carpeting to finish re-carpeting second-floor offices at the courthouse. Next on the "To-Do List" will be the third-floor office of the clerk of the district court and the first-floor county court office.

Holthus told commissioners Houlden Contracting of Cambridge will tear off and replace the roof on the sheriff's office when the weather forecast predicts five or six days without rain.

- Assigned a resolution number to a zoning regulation change they approved Nov. 5, 2002, changing the one-half mile on either side of Highways 6&34, 83 and 89 from Agricultural 1 to Transitional Ag and reducing the required lot size from seven to five acres.

- Approved a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance agreement with Scrip World for county employees' prescription benefit plan.

- Tabled until April 28 a decision on the county's natural gas supplier.

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