Franklin County BOC Considers Limited Jail Expansion Plan

Franklin County Commissioners may have come up with a plan to begin work on the jail expansion that everyone can live with.

The overall plan is to build a four-pod extension onto the existing jail which would have 96 beds and house non-violent and female offenders.

At their work session Tuesday night, commissioners discussed a plan to start the expansion by building two pods now and the last two using revenue from the next special purpose local option sales tax.

The board then reviewed the various funding options discussed over the past year.

County Manager John Phillips said those options included issuing bonds at a financing cost of $110,500, getting a loan from a local bank with a higher interest rate, doing the construction in phases, which might end costing more in the long run.

“We tried to look at all of the options we could to try and fund the project,” Phillips said.

Last month’s Grand Jury recommended the County move forward quickly with the jail expansion.

Total cost of the project, based on the architect’s projections is $2.4 million, but doesn’t include the monthly cost of operations, estimated to be between $140,000 and $200,000 a year.

Phillips noted there is still some money that has been set aside from a previous SPLOST in 2005 that could be used. That’s a total of just over $870,000.

After over a half-hour of discussions, Commissioner Jeff Jacques suggested taking that money plus borrowing another $500,000 to build two of the four pods now.

“If you build two pods, you’re construction cost would be basically half,” he said. “It might be an alternative that provides additional housing and provides safety for inmates.  That’s something that could possibly be done with the numbers that we’re looking at.”

The remaining two pods would be built using revenue from the next SPLOST in 2016, but Jacques acknowledged if voters don’t approve the next SPLOST, the county would have to find the money elsewhere.

“Then the taxpayers have decided they want to increase their taxes if it fails,” said Commissioner David Strickland. “They would have no choice. They had their chance to vote on it and if it fails, they would have to foot the bill.”

“The citizens that I’ve talked to are not in favor of a tax increase,” replied Jacques. “They want their government to do like they’ve had to do in their business and personal lives and make cut backs and make tough decisions.”

Commission Chair Thomas Bridges said he is in favor of waiting to put the jail expansion on the 2016 ballot in the form of a SPLOST referendum to pay for the entire project.

After more discussion, commissioners agreed to discuss the plan to build half of the project now and possibly vote on it at their regular meeting Monday night.

“What I expect to happen on Monday is a vote to proceed with the jail expansion at a project cost not to exceed $1.5 million,” Phillips said Wednesday.  “Of course, if this is voted on and approved, the first step will be to determine what can be constructed for this amount.  My suggestion would be to proceed with a design/build project or contractor at risk project with an architect working closely with a contractor to determine cost savings measures and determine a definitive project scope.”