The Union County Fiscal Court appears cool to the idea of going together with two other counties to build a regional jail.
Several county officials, including Judge Executive Larry Joe Jenkins, met with officials form Crittenden and Livingston counties last week.
Jenkins said, during Tuesday’s fiscal court meeting, that the host county would most likely benefit from a regional jail. The central location for the three counties involved in preliminary talks would be Marion, and Jenkins said that would present a problem with travel expense in transporting prisoner. He also said even if the regional jail was built at the Sturgis Airport it would still have transportation costs.
Jailer Marty Girten is a staunch supporter of building a so-called Class D Jail here in Union County.
He envisions a jail of some 140 to 160 beds, with 40 to 60 beds set aside for state Class D prisoners and 100 beds for the local prisoners and perhaps some from surrounding counties.
Girten also said having the state prisoners will enable the county to use those prisoners on local maintenance projects, saving the county money.
Girten pointed out that the state will pay the county so much a day for each prisoner and counties that currently have such jails are well pleased. Girten said Fulton County has such a jail and records show the jail did not cost the taxpayers anything the last fiscal year and the jail was able to turnover $200,000 in excess profits to the county government.
A second meeting with the two other counties is expected to be held.
In other news from the 75-minute meeting the court:
-- Heard that the state will improve the safety of the US 60-KY 109 intersection at Sullivan. Magistrate Joe Wells said a stop “bar” will be added, along with new and additional stop signs.
-- Noted that human error has delayed a $1 million grant for the new sewer line that will serve Union County High and Middle Schools and Methodist Hospital Union County. Jerry Ruark, executive director of the Union County Economic Development Foundation (UCEDF) is hopeful the error can be corrected and the grant will be processed and forwarded to Union County.
-- Voted unanimously to reverse a ban on paying road employees overtime for mosquito spraying. Judge Jenkins felt the mosquito problem was bad enough to allow road department workers some overtime to combat the varmints in rural areas such as Hitesville, Wynn Addition, Dekoven and Whispering Meadows as well as areas around Uniontown. County Road Foreman James Cooper will oversee the spraying program and decide how many nights the spraying will take place.
-- Agreed with County Treasurer Lissa Braddock’s recommendation and voted to go with a new software firm, Fiscal Soft, for bookkeeping purposes. Braddock noted that other counties have switched to the firm and have no regrets and highly recommend Fiscal Soft.
-- Voted unanimously to borrow $14,000 from the UCEDF at no interest. The money will be used to pay for a rate study of a possible Joint Sewer Authority (JSA), but the JSA plans were shelved.
-- Heard that work on the pressure pump and housing for the Martin Tire sprinkler system is underway and will take some 60 days to complete.
-- Tabled a request from Henderson Community College to pay $6,600 for a new software program for college classes being offered at the Herron Tech Center. Judge Jenkins and the court wanted more information and there was some feeling expressed that since HCC was offering the class it should pay for the software. More information will be sought from HCC and Herron Tech Center officials.
