I think I told you in a previous post the county would want a SPLOST vote…looks like I was right. Because the county still wants that new jail. And in the 2006 proposed SPLOST, the estimated price of the jail was only $87 million. The estimation of the price in the 2007 proposed SPLOST was $130 million. From today’s Sentinel:
SPLOST vote likely in November
Would fund new jail
By Winston Jones
Staff Writer
Douglas County will likely ask voters this November for a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) to build a new county jail, Commission Chairman Tom Worthan said Friday.
Worthan made his remarks at a noon meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Douglas County at Logan Roadhouse restaurant.
“We’re going to ask again for a SPLOST to build a new jail,” Worthan said early in his presentation to the club. However, he later qualified his remarks to say that the decision to seek a referendum isn’t final yet, and it will have to be decided by the entire Board of Commissioners (BOC).
Worthan said if a SPLOST vote is held, it will be limited to building a new $120-130 million correctional facility, financed by bonds over a six-year period.
“There will be no other projects,” he said. “This is not a ‘wish list’ as you had before. It’s a must-have list.”
Worthan said the inmate population Friday was 764 and that 20 inmates are being housed in other counties, at $45 per day, due to lack of space.
He also noted that the last two county grand juries have commented on the need for a new jail.
SPLOST referendums in 2006 and 2007 were rejected by voters. Worthan feels the 2006 bid was voted down because the facility was going to be built at the jail’s current downtown location on Spring Street. He noted that the county then bought 42 acres of land near the courthouse for the jail, a 911 center and a county administration building. He believes the 2007 SPLOST failed to pass because it contained so many other projects in addition to the jail.
Worthan admitted the SPLOST is going to be a “tough sale” with the economy down. However, he said construction costs would likely be lower now since steel prices are down and so many construction workers need jobs.
He also said that about 60 cents of every county sales tax dollar generated comes from out of county.
“If you go to the mall, you see that about 80 percent of the cars are not from Douglas County,” he said.
Despite maintaining that a new jail is definitely needed, Worthan showed some reservations about taking the issue to the voters for a third time.
“How do you feel about a SPLOST?” he asked club members at one point, and later, after expressing doubts about how a SPLOST would be accepted, he asked, “What do you think?”
Worthan summed it up, “We got to build a new jail. It’s the last thing I want to do, to be remembered as the guy who built that big jail.”
On other topics, the commission chairman said there’s many positive things to report in Douglas County. He said the county has not had to lay off any of its 955 employees or furlough anyone.
“We’re fortunate to have a BOC that saw this coming last year,” he said. “They took steps to curb spending and spent only 82 percent of the 2008 budget.”
Worthan said the 2009 budget was $16 million less than the 2008 budget and the county has instituted spending cuts including eliminating capital expenditures, putting a hiring freeze in place and limiting travel expense to only what is necessary for employees to maintain professional certification.
Worthan said the county is now taking bids on a $530,000 project to install traffic lights and turn lanes at the Post Road – Mason Creek Road intersection before the new Mason Creek elementary and middle schools open in August.
He also noted that work is progressing on the new 911 emergency center near the courthouse and the fire training facility on Worthan Road, near the county landfill.
