GROVETON — After pointing out concerns with city infrastructure and operational costs, the Trinity County Commissioners Court approved putting a $16.65 million bond issue to build a new county jail before the voters.
The plan, approved at the Aug. 12 meeting, is for a 60-bed jail to be constructed west of the city of Groveton.
Should the issue pass, property owners will see an increase of around $96 per $100,000 of property valuation to help pay the estimated $1.3 million per year repayment costs.
A second plan that included new offices for the Sheriff’s Office to be part of the construction would run $18.75 million was rejected by the court, even though Sheriff Woody Wallace pointed out that it would be problematic to keep the jail and SO that far apart should an emergency arise.
Wallace said that he had not been consulted much for a project that he ultimately will be in charge of, but with it being 2 miles away, there needs to be offices nearby. Currently, he said, they can walk across a street in the event of an emergency.
“We need to build this right and let the people decide what they want to spend the dollars on,” Wallace said. “People need to have a voice, but they need all the facts.”
Prior to the executive session, Groveton Mayor Hayden Lee told the court that with the work the city is putting into the water and sewer systems, there should be no problem handling the additional loads from the jail.
Lee said that he discussed the water supply with the city’s vendor, Pennington Water, and is confident that the 200 gallon per day per bed requirement could be met. The city recently has received grants to shore up the water system and to drill an additional well.
The jail is also expected to produce 2.8 gallons per minute in sewage, and Lee said the city is replacing the pumps at its two lift stations which should give the jail ample service.
Commissioner Neal Smith said that he still didn’t believe the infrastructure could handle the additional load and suggested that an independent engineer be hired to verify the city’s finding.
Commissioner Tommy Park said that he wanted people to know the full truth about costs, and that it would be more expensive to build and operate a jail than farming out prisoners to other jails in the area, since the bonds would only pay for construction costs and the county would have to raise taxes for maintenance and operations.
Currently, the county is paying just under $1 million per year to house prisoners in other facilities; he said that taxpayers could see a 30 to 35 percent increase in their tax burden by building a jail.
Wallace said that prices for housing inmates will definitely go up, so the county could not afford to kick the can down the road anymore and build a jail. He also said that currently, he cannot house female prisoners, meaning that he is housing some prisoners illegally. County Attorney Colton Hay said while that was off-topic, he cautioned Wallace to stop the practice.
Commissioner Steven Truss said he was not interested in putting his name on something so expensive, and agreed that this belonged in the hands of the voters.
In other business, commissioners:
