To the editor:
Sheriff Randy Wright’s comments in the July 31 Leader article contain incorrect statements about the evidence storage building. Let’s look at facts.
The Shawano County Board approved a secured evidence storage building in the Capital Improvement Plan, a 50- by 100-foot building, for a cost of $306,545, to be constructed in 2009. The board funded the project on Jan. 29, 2009. Resolution 6-09 borrowed $2.5 million on a temporary borrowing, including more than $370,000 for the evidence storage building and $750,000 for Maple Lane.
Wright stalled the project, not the County Board.
The storage facility did not get built or even started because it wasn’t good enough for the sheriff. We paid (wasted) bankers’ fees and interest on this money for a year and a half while the sheriff complained that it had to have fancy offices, a lab, conference room, heated storage for junk cars, talk of a kitchen and, at one point, a medical examiners office.
The plan approved and funded was based on a 2005 study by Virchow-Krause suggesting additional storage space for evidence. The study did not recommend a secondary law enforcement complex with offices.
The sheriff’s contention with the board over evidence storage is self-created by inflating the scope and size of the project, and continued attempts to push for an inappropriate site that would destroy Heritage Park.
On June 23, 2010, Resolution 40-10 proposed borrowing $2.2 million to convert the temporary borrowing to long-term. Maple Lane was sold. Wright wanted the $750,000 borrowed for Maple Lane added to the $370,000 borrowed for evidence storage. No committee had authorized the project shifting.
The board did catch this unauthorized shift in funding allocation. That is our job. Once caught, we were not allowed to amend, so we did not borrow; we postponed indefinitely. The audio of the June 23, 2010, meeting is available on the Shawano County website — a public record. Please listen.
Resolution 48-10, on July 14, 2010, borrowed $1.3 million instead, removing the unneeded $750,000 Maple Lane and the funding for the evidence storage building, since it was not prudent to sit on borrowed money arguing.
In November 2011, an Ad Hoc Evidence Storage Building Committee, including citizen members, was appointed. Wright did not like that committee’s recommendations either.
In June 2012, Wright insisted the new building request was for only 950 square feet more, yet rejected vacant space offered in the courthouse. A year later, Resolution 39-13, allocated 1,877 square feet of the former Public Health space to be used for evidence storage and offices, freeing up additional space in the Sheriff’s Department.
There is still no evidence building because Wright didn’t want the secure storage version that was approved. My facts are a matter of public record.
Deb Noffke,
Shawano
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