Crawford County officials approve added land deal for new county jail

The Crawford County Quorum Court voted unanimously Monday night (Sept. 15) to purchase nearly 16 acres of land to house the county's voter-approved $20 million jail project. The land, which is two tracts side-by-side, sits just outside of the Van Buren city limits between Van Buren and Alma along the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 64.

Justice of the Peace Lloyd Cole, who chairs the Quorum Court's jail committee, said purchasing the additional land east of the eight acres that had already been surveyed and put into contract allowed architects to design the jail with in a way that allowed for easier future expansion.

The original eight acre tract cost $275,000 while the adjoining 7.66 acres was listed for $191,000, for a cumulative total of $466,000 for land acquisition. Should the court only have approved purchase of the original eight acres, Cole noted it would have cost more to build out future expansions than purchasing the land approved at Monday's meeting.

"It'll cost that much just to prepare that land for a (future) structure as (we're paying for) the land we're trying to buy right now," County Judge John Hall noted during a meeting on the then-proposed land purchase on Sept. 9.

Cole also said expanding the jail to the west on the originally contracted property would have made prisoner escorts through the facility more dangerous since there would not be a direct link between the sheriff's intake center and any future expansion without first having to go through the original jail. Having the additional land will allow the county to build any future expansion closer to intake and reduce the distance inmates would have to be transported.

"If you're bringing a prisoner in, you've got to escort through one controlled facility all the way to get to another facility. Well, as someone who's escorted inmates before, you don't want to escort them any further than you have to. You have a lot of things going on," Cole said. "You've got a control center right here with 350 inmates. There's a lot going on. I don't want to have to transfer them through there. If we come up and make a 'Y' through here, we can purchase this over to the east – the wagon wheel, we call it – and at some point add another facility right here.”

Justice of the Peace Butch Barnes said purchasing the land now when the owner of the 7.66 acres was motivated to unload his investment was a smart move for he county in the long run.

"The smartest thing for us to do is buy this property. I mean, it's a win, win situation. Down the road 10 years from now … we know what happened down the road at this (the county's present) jail. There's no room," he said.

Hall noted that the original budget for land was set at $475,000, meaning that the land purchase was coming in under budget. Had the court only approved funding for the original eight acres, Hall said U.S. Bank – the trustees of $20 million in bond funds to be used for the project – would have been required to let the additional budgeted funds for land sit until the bonds were paid off in nine years, essentially saving the county no money since interest would have been paid on the unused but borrowed funds.

Following the unanimous approval of the ordinance for the land purchase, a spontaneous round of applause filled the circuit courtroom where Monday's meeting was held. Hall said the court's move to approve the land "says a lot about how this county government works for the good of everybody together.”

In other business, the Quorum Court approved an amended budget ordinance that would have originally proved money to the county assessor's office to fulfill terms of a contract for GIS services in the amount of $6,891.85.

County Assessor Ronnie Dale said money was originally removed from his 2014 fiscal year budget by the court in order to balance the budget. Dale said he was told the money would be made available to him to fulfill the contracts his office would undertake during the year.

But Justice of the Peace Elaina Damante had a different recollection of discussions with the assessor.

"I specifically asked him if he would be able to pay his service contracts. He told me yes. None of the other elected officials who we cut a lot more from their budgets have come before us and how he's coming before us. And that is why I'm having a problem because I feel like we're not treating all of our elected officials fairly.”

Hall initially had the court vote on the budget ordinance as presented, which included several other line items for various departments, at which time Justice of the Peace Carrie Jernigan said if the ordinance passed she would like to see the court turn around and remove $6,800 in funding from the assessor's office to make up for the request.

But after the original ordinance failed, a motion was made to amend the ordinance and remove the request from Dale's office. The ordinance then passed nine to four.

Following the meeting, Dale said he had no choice but to not pay the contract, which could result in the county not being able to use services and software provided through the GIS surveyor. Dale said the flyovers and resulting assessments have uncovered $5 million in previously undocumented properties netting the county an additional $50,000 in revenue.

As for the problems between himself and the court, Dale said he believes the court plays favorites with elected officials.

"You see, you've got this little clique up here. They don't like me because I'm not their fan and so anyway, they vote against everything I ask for. They fight me on everything, but this was a contract that was signed by the county judge and me and I just came back to ask for the money to pay for it because they took $15,000 in money out of my service contracts. Well, they didn't give me the money back. They told me they would give it back to me first of the year. They didn't give it back."