DeKalb County Commissioners voted Monday night to get three cost estimates for jail upgrades.
The commission initially looked at receiving a cost estimate for just upgrading the current jail. The second price will include building a new jail by purchasing adjacent property the current location. The third option, purchasing property and building at a new location. Commissioner Andy Pack said he felt commissioners should compare costs.
“I still think it’s fair for the public to see comparison prices on what we are trying to accomplish here,” Pack said. “I mean, again, I think it’s important for us to go down this alley, but you still need comparisons for the public to see. You show them one price well, that’s what it costs, maybe not, maybe so.”
Commissioner Tom Chandler said he believes the county needs to assess the impact of upgrading the current jail before making a decision.
“I know that there are members of the public that just want to have it there because they don’t want it in their backyard, but that’s not good enough,” Chandler said. “We are gonna need to assess what the impact is to the downtown area, and not only after it’s built, but while it’s being done.”
Some commissioners requested that the cost estimates be based on a certain number of beds for the jail. Jail Committee Chairman Larry Green said the number of beds needed to be state-certified is still unknown.
“We have never reached an agreement with TCI as to a minimum number of beds we can actually get by with, cause we don’t know what we can afford,” Green said. “Until we get these costs done, we are not gonna know what we can afford.”
The county adopted a 51-cent property tax increase for debt service last year. DeKalb County Mayor Matt Adcock said the county would need to decide on the new jail before approving the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget.
“I was told that we can’t keep the 51 cents in our debt service this long,” Adcock said. “It would be an illegal syncing fund. I don’t know how true that is. I have to find out if that’s true, but I’ve heard that you can’t do that.”
The jail committee will meet again on May 6 to ask for cost estimates from a consultant. Green said the jail committee should have cost estimates by June, and then the commission could decide which option is the best step forward.
