Public forum held to explain jail bond issue

Friday, March 27, 2015
Loretta George/Tribune photo Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin, center, points to Bobby Reed, jail administrator when talking about conditions at the current jail. Martin along with other county employees and representatives from Goldberg Group Architects, the designer of the jail and Greg Vahrenberg, managing director of Piper Jaffray, the group helping with the jail financing, attended the public forum at Uniontown High School Tuesday. Voters will decide April 7 whether the proposed new jail facility will be paid for with a .4 percent sales tax.

Outdated, overpopulated, and unsafe - that is the condition of the current Bourbon County jail built in 1977, said Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin at apublic forum in Uniontown High School Tuesday evening. The $6,850,000 jail bond issue will be decided by county residents in the April 7 election.

Martin introduced Larry Goldberg, president of Goldberg Group Architects PC, who has designed the proposed new facility.

Goldberg said a jail's needs are different than years ago.

"They've grown increasingly complex," Goldberg said. "America's rural communities have suffered a meth epidemic. Jails used to be for the town drunk or passing bad checks to today's classifications, which are more serious."

Today pods are required for housing inmates so they can be separated safely and securely.

The estimated final cost "isn't in fancy stuff," Goldberg said. "The cost is security and security systems...This cost includes construction, property, furniture, fixtures and equipment."

The current jail has a linear design, which doesn't allow direct visual monitoring from a central control, creating increased security risks and staffing inefficiency.

"The radial podular design (of the proposed facility) is so jail officers can have control visually," Goldberg said.

In addition, the current jail is dysfunctional, because the utilities are enclosed within concrete security walls; making it difficult to work on.

"Right now, we have a pod down and five inmates had to be moved out because of showers not working," Martin said. "We can't get a plumber to fix the plumbing," because the space is so tight.

"The jail is all concrete, you can't adapt that," Goldberg said. "What we do today is rear chase cells from the back of the cell to the back of the building."

A chase is a corridor between the inmate cell and the outside of the building for maintenance access.

The outside of the building is pre-engineered metal, the inside is reinforced concrete blocks and the cells are galvanized steel, Goldberg said.

The completion of the proposed jail would be 14-16 months from groundbreaking, which includes training personnel to use the new technology, Martin said.

Sales tax

The proposed jail is to be paid for with a sales tax, not a property tax, Martin said.

"People passing through will pay for the jail," he said.

The payment per year is about $525,000, Greg Vahrenberg, public finance investment banker for Piper Jaffray, the group helping with the financing of the bond issue.

After calculation, the bond issue tax rate is .4 percent, 40 cents for every $100 spent, he said.

In response to a question about the possibility of sales tax revenue going down, Vahrenberg said there is a cushion of $225,000.

"This is a significant cushion," he said, that can address any downturn in the local economy, or the excess "can help pay off the bond."

Interest rates are currently close to an all-time low, he said.

The tax rate will go into effect this fall if the bond issue passes, Vahrenberg said.

Old jail use

Martin said he has had questions about the use for the current jail, which is attached to the Bourbon County Courthouse.

"I can't knock the building down," Martin said. "The elevator (in the building) is used for ADA compliance (for the rest of the three-story courthouse)."

The treasurer, emergency preparedness, information technology and storing of records for offices in the courthouse that have expressed an interest to Martin for using the old building if it is vacated.

"Part of the sales tax will be used to refurbish that old building," Martin said.

Possible sites

Bourbon County is currently looking at three potential sites.

One is on south Main Street (U.S. 69) between Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers at 2000 S. Main and SEKAN Occasion Shops at 2210 S. Main. The second possible site is at 12th and Clark, the southeast corner lot. A third, Martin indicated, he has still to view.

"The industrial park was brought up as a possible site," Martin said. "Lots of people say the industrial park should be appealing."

Martin said the jail has to be within the city limits of the county seat.

He said there are other limitations as well that need to be taken into consideration: not close to schools, hospitals, railroad tracks, manufacturing operations with toxic smells, daycare centers, nursing homes or a public library.

"Tell me where in Fort Scott I can go to and not touch one of them," Martin said.

Jail employee turnover

Bobby Reed, jail administrator, addressed the employee turnover.

"I've had to fill 29 positions since 2013," Reed said. (The year he became administrator.)

Twenty-two left on their own, seven were terminated, he said.

"Because of pay and working conditions," Reed said.

It's difficult to find qualified people to serve in the correctional facility, he said. Currently five of his employees are from out of county.

"Bill is in the process of looking at other counties in the state for pay scale," Lynne Oharah, Bourbon County Commissioner,said. "So we can get Bourbon County up to where we need to be."

The proposed 21,000-square-foot facility has a housing capacity of 90 beds, with 74 as the base package, and 16 beds as an option, depending on the final bids.