GROVETON — Trinity County Commissioners discussed the cost of building a new jail, and how those costs would affect property owners in the county.
At a special meeting last Wednesday, Ben Rosenberg of U.S. Capital Advisors discussed preliminary figures for a jail bond issue.
Rosenberg said that based on state law, bond elections must be called in May or November of odd-numbered years only. He also said that state law does not regulate tax rates used to pay for bond repayment.
During the discussion, commissioners were presented with two options for a jail — one for a jail only, at a cost of $16.65 million; and a second, which also would contain offices for the Sheriff’s Department, at a cost of $18.75 million.
Rosenberg said that should the commissioners approve a jail-only option, the cost would be about $96.30 per $100,000 valuation of property; and for the jail-office option, costs were estimated at $109.03 per $100,000.
The costs could fluctuate depending on interest rates available at the time of the bond sale, he said, and the total payoff for the jail-only option, which would be in 2046, is estimated to be $26.355 million.
Commissioner Neal Smith asked if the bond election could allow a choice between the two options, but Rosenberg said that state law does not allow that. He also questioned how office space was included in the plans, since no one on the court, nor even the county’s Jail Committee, had heard about that option before Wednesday’s meeting.
“I would like to know how that got there,” he said. “From the time we started, it was a jail we were building. How did the offices get involved?”
A separate issue the court discussed was increased operations costs and how the county would pay for those.
Commissioner Steven Truss asked if the county would have to hold a separate election, since it would raise that part of the budget an additional 10 percent. While that was not settled, the options presented were a special election, or the county, through its powers to raise taxes without an election, would raise taxes for operations 3 ½ percent per year for three years.
No votes were taken.
At another special meeting this Monday, the court did pass a measure to allow them to purchase 6.1 acres of land in the western part of the city should the bond measure be approved.
County Attorney Colton Hay said that this approval does not obligate the court to a purchase, but gives them the option to formalize a land purchase if the November bond issue passes.
In this meeting as well as Wednesday’s meeting, Smith said that he had concerns about the city’s infrastructure, as the water system went down earlier this year.
Hay pointed out that this is just granting permission to negotiate, and that he could vote against the purchase in November.
He also said that if the architects test the site and find it lacking, which would include utilities, they would come back and find other options.
