News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
DeKalb County Commissioners will develop a proposal to build a jail after the public rejected the $65 million justice center bond referendum.
DeKalb County Mayor Matt Adcock said the County Commission’s Jail Committee met with Tennessee Corrections Institute Deputy Director Bob Bass earlier this month. Bass told commissioners if the county did not come up with a plan of action, the current jail would be decertified.
“There’s not really a whole lot of discussion on how many beds or how large or what the location would be,” Adcock said. “So we are kind of all going back to the drawing board and we are hoping to have another meeting I believe on January 6th to discuss it further.”
Adcock said TCI did not give a specific date as far as a deadline before they would decertify the county jail. Adcock said now that the groundwork for a plan of action is in place the deadline to build a new jail will be extended.
“They did say in that meeting if they did not get in something before December that in the December TCI board meeting, they would decertify us,” Adcock said. “But since we have made that motion and voted in that meeting he did say that he would extend it at least to another year, so we will have one year under a plan action to construct a jail.”
Adcock said the jail proposal does have a better starting point than the justice center as some of the preliminary work was completed during the justice center proposal.
“We do have a little bit grounds underneath us and that we have had offers for property and we have had cost estimates,” Adcock said. ” We already know pretty much what a jail will cost when eliminating the courts cause we looked into both options while we were at the drawing board. So yes, it’s significantly going to be easier this time because we really already explored the jail option once before.”
Adcock said the county proposed the justice center with the jail as in the long run, it was going to be cheaper. Adcock said the county considered transportation costs as one of the reasons the county wanted to build the justice center.
“We looked at all that money in 30 years in the time of the bond how often you know you would have to replace the bus or the oil changes and the fuel, and transport officer salaries, and all the things that come along with just a jail only,” Adcock said. “We actually saved more money with the justice center and it was the cheaper of the two. However, I guess the public perception of the justice center was that it was more expensive, so we are going back to the drawing board and we know how much a jail costs it’s going to be upfront a little less expensive but it’s going to cost a little more in the long run.”
Adcock said no matter what the county has to do something to address the jail. Adcock said it has been a long journey but hopefully, it is coming to a close.
