Jail Expansion Could Be Impacted As Commissioners Approve Just 4 Parcels

Putnam County Commissioners approved the purchase of four parcels surrounding the Justice Center and Jail Monday night.

But the $888,000 purchase will not provide enough parking spaces for the expansion. The 165 spaces falls below the minimum 500 needed.

“I’m terribly disappointed,” Sheriff Eddie Farris said. “Myself, Mayor Porter and other commissioners have worked tirelessly over the last two years to try to find property and work with architects on building a new jail expansion and court expansion.”

“Unless we have some luck somewhere, the way I view it we probably killed our jail expansion project.”

Commissioners voted against purchasing two already-cleared pieces of land along Spring Street and Broad Street. In two separate votes, the motions failed on a 12-12 vote. The lot at 538 East Spring Street would have provided 150 spaces. Parcel two, south of that on Broad Street, would have allowed for 255 spaces.

“Those properties as far as developing them for parking will be much cheaper than the ones you just bought because they’ve already been rocked and all the drainage put in,” Porter said. “All they need is a little leveling and a little bit of gravel and they’re ready to pave.”

“Not buying these two pieces of property at this price at this time with the interest rate is insane,” Commissioner Andrew Donadio said.

The $1.3 million price tag for the two pieces of land is “extremely high” according to Commissioner Theresa Tayes.

Commissioners voted 21-3 to purchase two parcels at 113 and 119 Locust Avenue. The total price tag of $525,000 will make room for some 80 parking spaces. By that same vote, commissioners approved the purchase at 127 Locust Avenue. The $225,000 property will provide 25 parking spaces. Commissioners also voted to purchase a piece of land at 454 East Hudgens Street for $138,000. The motion passed on a 22-2 vote. A total of 40 spaces would be available at that site.

Commissioners Tayes and Kevin Christopher voted against all four parcels. Tayes said the current economic situation simply makes the timing for such a purchase inappropriate.

Before the vote, County Mayor Randy Porter urged commissioners to think beyond today in making a decision.

“Every time the county has had the opportunity to buy more land than maybe it needed right at the time, it didn’t and a future commission regretted it,” Porter said. “Try to think 20-25 years out. You’ll probably have another opportunity to buy most of this property again.”

Porter will move forward with on negotiating for a sixth piece of land, the Enoch property at 116 South Lowe Avenue behind the Justice Center. Porter received a price of $3.8 million prior to the meeting. Commissioners unanimously approved giving Porter the power to chance to negotiate and bring the information back to the board.

Commissioner Grover Bennett said he believed the buildings on that property could be used by court officials.

“I think it would be worth looking at because you’ve got buildings built and ready to occupy,” Bennett said.

Porter said architects have looked at the idea but could not figure out a way to connect the buildings. Further, Porter said the lot with the buildings intact would only provide about 50 parking spaces.

Several commissioners asked about the possibility of a parking deck in the justice center region. Farris said architects and engineers projected the cost at more than $30,000 per parking spot in such a structure. The average price per parking space stands at $6,127 for the land approved Monday.

Farris said architects wanted close to 800 spaces, but he and Porter saw the parking space closer to 500.

The county will borrow the money for the purchases. Porter said the going interest rate is around 1.65 percent. Once jail construction begins in the next three years, the price of the land would be rolled into a bond issue.

Before the full commission met, Commissioner Mike Atwood made a motion to move the discussion of Justice Center properties from the Fiscal Review Committee to the full board of commissioners without recommendation. Atwood said there was no reason to have the discussion twice. During the meeting, Commissioners voted 20-4 to discuss each piece of property individually.

County commissioners met for the first time in-person since February. The basketball court at the Cookeville Community Center became a county commissioners chambers with six-feet spacing.