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Post by CC on May 10, 2009 19:20:59 GMT -5
Still plugging along for the new jail
Right now the annual budget for the Jerome County Jail Is roughly $960,000 a year. A proposed replacement jail costing about $13 million to build, would house just over 160 prisoners, with about half of those beds being rented out for prisoners from other jails.
April Lee with Rocky Mountain Corrections says, “With the bed rental revenue from those 90 beds, and your current jail budget, the final cost after you pay the lease payment and all the operational costs remains pretty much the same as what your current jail budget is.
Lee says the Jerome County Commissioners had two ways to get the legal authority to sign a 30 year lease to pay for the new jail. One would be to have a judge review the proposal; and the other would require a two-thirds majority vote from private citizens.
Jerome County Commissioners Chair Charlie Howell says, “Then we would go out to, and we could put it on the ballot in August. Then the next step after that would be doing a campaign to make sure that the citizens of Jerome County understand the process of the lease.
The judicial review option wouldn't cost taxpayers any money. The representative sample of 350 voters surveyed last month shows that 60 percent of them are in favor of a new jail – while they’re split about half and half when it comes to voting for a bond.
Jerome County Sheriff Doug McFall says, “I think the most important thing to do is what we've been doing in the past, educated the citizens, and let them know what Jerome County is really facing
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