The committee in pursuit of a new law enforcement center will take a fresh approach to the issue next month, delaying the issues of location and design and instead asking supervisors to back a plan to start billing taxpayers for the $25 million project.
The Law Enforcement/Judiciary Committee hopes to muster the 24 votes needed, reckoning the 75 percent supermajority support for funding will indicate sufficient backing for the overall project.
“You skip all the other processes and go right to that 75 percent vote,” Administrative Coordinator Kevin Hamann said.
“I would favor that 100 percent. You put people on the spot,” committee member Paul Bednarik said.
Hamann suggested the tactic as a way to move ahead with the project, which has stalled over uncertainties regarding the proposed site and whether to hold a referendum to gain voter acceptance.
County Board Chairman Lee Rymer emphasized the need to move quickly to construct the center to take advantage of low interest rates and to lock in the cost of building materials, which he predicted will increase with time.
“If the County Board wants to vote it down, (the center) is just going to keep going up in the amount of money it’s going to cost,” Rymer said.
Rymer also referred to a state inspection report from July that outlined numerous deficiencies of the current jail, including insufficient space for visiting, programming and separation of inmates, security issues related to surveillance limitations, and capacity issues that result in as many as 25 inmates being housed outside the Oconto facility daily.
“What’s going to happen when Marinette says ‘We can’t take any more,’ and we start shipping people all over the state,” said Gerald Beekman, committee chairman.
“The need is there,” Rymer said.
The committee plans to ask the County Board to support a tax levy of 25 cents per $1,000 of equalized value, beginning in 2014. This amounts to an additional $25 per year for 20 years on a home valued at $100,000. At that rate, the county would gain $873,000 per year for 20 years and pay off the facility in 2037.
If the board approves the plan, the committee can continue with land and design planning, then ask the County Board to vote to issue the bonds as construction nears. The County Board with a supermajority vote (24 of 31 supervisors) could issue the bonds itself, avoiding a referendum that Rymer and other officials say is doomed to fail.
If the supervisors fail to provide the needed 75 percent vote, Hamann said the project is jeopardized.
“If you can’t get the money, then the options are to cut your other departments’ budgets so severely to pay for it, or hope that the sales tax tremendously improves or continue operating as is and pay the money out (for inmate housing),” he said.
Rymer said the outdated facility is becoming a dangerous place to operate.
“The liability is something that scares me,” Rymer said.
The County Board is scheduled to vote on the funding Sept. 19.
By then, it should know the outcome of a town of Little River vote regarding language in its annexation agreement with the city of Oconto. Under the agreement, Little River will grant Oconto right-of-way on a section of road to the proposed site, located near the intersection of U.S. Highway 41 and County Road S, north of the Oconto city limits.
In return, Oconto will pay the town $8,000 to offset state transportation aid the town would lose. The city would run water and sewer lines to the site and provide other services.
The city has already dropped wording in the annexation agreement that ties the passage of a referendum to the construction of the law enforcement center, but Little River postponed its vote until Aug. 22.
Members of the Law Enforcement/Judiciary Committee are doubtful Little River would drop the requirement, putting the annexation deal and the site in question.
The County Board identified several possible sites for the center, but the Law Enforcement/Judiciary Committee in May reaffirmed its choice of the Little River site.
Oconto Falls Mayor Brad Rice reaffirmed the city’s $1 offer of land in its industrial park, but the facility has been rejected because of the need to transport inmates to court appearances in Oconto.
The land on the south side of Oconto has also been ruled out, after a preliminary check by county employees showed it to be too low. Tests also indicated its soil was not as good as that of the Little River site, said Hamann, who said a perfect site will be impossible to find.
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