BOC feels the jailhouse rock

By Jim Thompson – The Walton Tribune

County could vote to convert old jail to offices soon

Faced with a need for more, and better organized, space for governmental operations, the Walton County Board of Commissioners could vote as soon as Tuesday on a projected $21.9-million proposal to transform the former county jail on South Madison Avenue into the new home for several county offices.

Alternatively, the county commission also could use its Tuesday meeting, set for 6 p.m. in the Historic Walton County Courthouse in downtown Monroe, to consider a projected $31.6-million project to create a new space off Hammond Drive for those offices.

However, judging from discussion at a called Aug. 25 non-voting work session, the commission appears poised to favor the reuse of the old jail over the new construction option, both of which were presented to them by representatives of Precision Planning, Inc., a local engineering and architectural design firm.

“This will utilize a facility that we have,” said Commission Chairman David Thompson of the old jail alternative, as he went on to note that the county’s general fund has enough money to fund the $21.9 million project – and, in fact, to fund the $31.6-million option, if the commission chooses.

“We have the need for the space, and we have the money in the bank,” Thompson told the commission and the members of the public who attended the non-voting work session. “We don’t have to bond this, or borrow the money.”

According to the Precision Planning presentation, renovating the former jail could provide space for the county’s Elections & Voter Registration office, including storage space for the county’s voting machines. The office is now spread across a number of buildings. A renovated old jail could also provide an opportunity for bringing the county’s fire-rescue, emergency medical, and emergency management offices together, and could additionally provide space for the county’s planning and zoning and human resources activities, according to the Precision Planning proposal.

The three-story new construction option could, according to the presentation, provide space for the county’s tag and tax office, its finance department, and its human resources operations.

While renovation of the old jail – or construction of new space – is designed to help streamline county government operations, there is another factor in the commission’s consideration of those options.

As outlined Tuesday by County Manager John Ward, and expressed in a letter to the commission from the offices of the county’s Superior Court judges, its district attorney and its public defender’s office, the county’s increasing population is boosting caseloads, creating a need for additional space in the Hammond Drive facilities that also house other county government offices.

According to Ward, that growth means the county is in line to get as many as three new Superior Court judges within the next couple of years. That, Ward added, will also mean that the county will have to have at least one additional assistant district attorney, along with more public defenders, clearly creating space issues at Hammond Drive.

“We’re trying to be proactive in this,” Ward told the commissioners. “We already have more judges than we have courtrooms.”

“When the court systems back up,” Ward added, “then the prisoners back up in … (the county) jail, and then it costs the taxpayers a lot of money.”

Vacating any space at Hammond Drive, Ward explained, would put into place a domino effect clearing the needed space for judicial personnel, offices and courtrooms. On the other side of the equation, commissioners were told Tuesday, either a renovated jail or a new building could address a number of problems.

Among the issues that could be addressed, according to the Tuesday presentation, are getting the county’s elections office into a single space, with the renovated jail providing the added bonus of giving the office a place to store the county’s voting machines.

The proposed addition of space for county operations got some pushback from citizens at the Tuesday work session, with one woman wondering whether it was wise to use general fund reserve dollars to fund the project, given the possibility that the county could face a situation where that money is needed elsewhere, and county taxpayers are faced with the prospect of facing higher property tax bills.

“That’s the fear of most citizens here,” the woman said.

Prior to the woman’s comment, Thompson had asked rhetorically, “When you’re financially secure, are you going to borrow money to pay for a house when you can pay for the house with cash?”

Things became somewhat testy Tuesday when a man in the audience asked about the specific square footage needs to accommodate a new judge and the associated expenses outlined by Ward, and couldn’t get a specific answer.

A frustrated Thompson pointed out that the issue faced by the county was larger than just a new judge, and included a need for better space for other government operations.

“That’s not all of it,” Thompson said. “Each department needs more space.”