News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A new $50 wheel tax went into effect this month across Clay County to provide funding for a new $7.5 million jail.
Mayor Dale Reagan said the debt payments will be $350,000 per year.
“Nobody ever wants to have any kind of increases and I understand that, but the position that [we’re in], either we face this now or later down the road. It’s not going to go away, we’ve got to face this. That was one of the things the county commissioners…it wasn’t easy for them,” Reagan said.
The current jail holds 14 beds and cannot hold female inmates. Reagan said the new facility will house 100 beds and both genders.
Reagan said the county has needed a new jail for over 30 years.
“We’re very limited to who we can house,” Reagan said. “We have no sound separation, if we have anyone with any kind of medical problems we have a real hard time [because] there’s no way to separating them out. The State Department, the TCI, the fire marshal, and everyone have been outstanding to work with.”
The new facility will take at least two and a half years to complete. Reagan said once construction starts it could be longer to complete.
“It takes money to do these things. In government the only way that you have a raise in revenue is through taxes a lot of times. That’s one of the things the commissioners didn’t want to [tax is] property taxes. They wanted to try to steer away from that as much as they could,” Reagan said.
The jail will be located off of Hwy 53 about three miles outside of Celina on eight acres.
