Mayor Bud Allee and Council members agreed to call a town meeting at which Gary Hamilton of Albany, the man who would put the proposed county jail in the Sheridan Schoolhouse, would present information about the project. Allee said that he was all for it, saying that it would get the building back in shape and back on the city's tax rolls, but that it was up to the council to decide the fate of the proposal. Allee said that it would be a self-contained prison that would be fenced in and surveyed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; the monitoring would be done based on state requirements. The employees would be private security guards who would have no public authority or arrest powers.
Council members said that there were some people who were for it and some against it. Councilman Dave Thomas said that most of the people he talked to were for it, but councilwoman Candy Martin said that the people she talked to were all against it. Rodney Martin said that he did not want to see any criminal element brought to Sheridan. Councilman Dave Thomas said that the worst offenders that would be there were people who were convicted of DWI offenses or child support violations. Allee said that contrary to rumors, the inmates would not have the run of the park or be allowed to go to the tavern. "There were these sorts of rumors going around when Maryville's facility was built," he said. "And look how lucrative it is for them."
Both Allee and councilman Leland Wake said that the big upside of the project would be the fact that the Schoolhouse would be fixed up. "We've been trying to maintain the building ever since the school closed," said Allee. "This is our chance to do so." He said that another upside would be that the building would be back on the tax rolls; he said that it would use a lot of water, meaning a lot more revenues for the city's water fund. The proposed jail would have its own sewage plant to ease the additional load on Sheridan's water resources.
Miranda Lyle, an opponent of the proposal, addressed the council said that there were a lot of unanswered questions about it. For instance, she said that the city did not know enough about Mr. Hamilton's credentials or what his business plan would be or what information, if any, the state had on either him or similar such projects. "This is research that should have already been done," she said. She said that there were a lot of similar projects around the state in which small towns were stuck with buildings that they could not use because of leins on the property after the jails went under. Another question she said needed to be asked was the fact that there was an already existing unused facility near Bethany but that Mr. Hamilton was trying locate it in Sheridan. "Why here and not Bethany?" she asked. The Bethany jail recently closed, which triggered the current proposal before Sheridan. Councilwoman Mary Jo Hawk said that the project would be paid for by Hamilton's own money and that of two partners and that he was in the process of getting grant money for the project as well.
Lyle then said that the criminal element argument was being downplayed too much. "They may only be in here for 120 days maximum, but that doesn't mean that they didn't commit something else," she said. "These people are not going to willingly walk into these places."
Debbie (Fletchall) Zook, another opponent of the proposal, said that the city should look at other alternatives to bringing in a jail. "We're planning to retire to Sheridan and we're building a house next to the jail," she said. "We should not have to worry about our safety because of the fact that we live next to a jail."
Wake said that the council could not come up with the answers in one meeting and that the best thing to do would be to have a town hall meeting with Mr. Hamilton so that the city and residents could get some answers. Allee appointed Martin and Hawk to organize a meeting with Mr. Hamilton so that he could introduce himself to the community and pitch the proposal.
Talking about the late Marian Scott, Allee said that the town had lost a "prominent, productive citizen." Ms. Scott had worked with the city for 11 years and Allee said that "She was a good friend and she did a lot of good things for the city."
It was reported that there was a vandalism at the park; kids had taken the slide and dragged it in front of the bandstand.
Water Superintendent David Parman reported that he had renewed his water treatment license and that there were six delinquent customers this month.
Street Commissioner Doug Allee reported that the new city truck had been fixed. Work was done on the two-speed, the shutoff, the oil filter, the tail light, and the hydraulics. He said that he planned to work on the city streets this weekend, weather permitting. More work was still needed on welding the snowplow.
No comments:
Post a Comment