News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
DeKalb County Commissioners voted Monday to send the $65 million justice center and jail bond to a referendum.
The vote came after DeKalb County citizens successfully pushed a petition to send the bond to referendum. Commissioners had an option of killing the bond by not sending it to referendum. Commissioner Myron Rhody made the motion to send the bond to the ballot.
“I’ll put that in the form of a motion that we let it go to a referendum since we told the people what they had to do,” Rhody said.
All 13 commissioners voted in favor of sending the bond to a referendum. The bond will now be on the November 5th ballot.
Dekalb County Commissioners had been looking at the idea of expanding the jail or building a more comprehensive facility. The Tennessee Corrections Institute reduced the number of prisoners Dekalb County could house due to poor facilities. Inmate overcrowding and facility problems go back some 20 years. The latest vote centered on a 190-bed facility.
Multiple residents made public comments about justice center bond. DeKalb County Citizen Doug Waller expressed his frustrations with how the county has handled a proposed quarry and the proposal of the justice center bond.
“I just see that this committee is looking to float a bond now for a prison and the schools,” Waller said. “How about float a hundred thousand dollars for a zoning regulator or a zoning person to come into the county as a job, and set up something to protect the citizens of the county and their property values.”
