BUCYRUS — Twenty years after the Crawford County Jail on Stetzer Road opened its doors, the Crawford County Board of Commissioners are going to the ballots to ask voters to help keep business operating as usual.
On Nov. 6, voters will have a decision to make on the Criminal and Administrative Justice Services Levy, a 0.5-percent sales and use tax for the operation and maintenance of the Crawford County Jail.
“I’d like to tell you it’s a renewal, but it’s not, because there’s no construction aspect to it,” Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent said. “I’d like to call it that because it’s the same amount as the expiring levy, but I can’t.”
Crawford County Commissioner Doug Weisenauer said it cannot be considered a replacement levy either, because the new levy would be for maintenance and operations.
A 25-year 0.5-percent levy is set to expire June 30. The levy was voted on in 1994 for the construction of the jail, which opened in 1998, expanding Crawford County’s jailing abilities from 16 spots in its jail to 121.
If approved by voters, the new levy would begin July 1.
Despite the final collection being in June, the final payment on the construction of the jail would not take place until December. After that payment, the principle balance on the jail would be paid off.
The debt payment has been between $340,000 and $400,000 during the past 10 years, with the exception of 2010 and 2017, when the bond was refinanced, and the payments were just more than $1.6 mil and $747,000, respectively. The 2018 payment is $395,250.
Weisenauer said when the building is paid off, the additional subsidy from the county still would need to be in place for maintenance that has been differed.
Kent said the largest expense for the jail is inmate care.
The county spends more than $218,000 per year on meals for its inmates and more than $270,000 on healthcare for the inmates. Both are state-mandated operating items, but the jail does not receive state funding to carry out the operations.
Kent said a great deal of the healthcare costs come from inmates who are brought to the jail with drug addiction issues.
According to Kent, drug usage has completely changed the operations of the jail, even in just the 20 years the new building has been built. He said the bookings area has become the jail’s mental health and detox center.
Mentally handicapped inmates will stay in booking cells to keep those inmates separate from the general population. Detoxing inmates also remain in the booking cells until their systems have cleared, which for some has taken as long as a week.
Overcrowding is said to be an issue as well. Of the 121 spots in the jail, normally approximately 118 are filled at a given time. The jail officially has 16 beds for female inmates, but currently is housing approximately 30.
“We never thought we’d fill this thing,” Kent said of the thought of county officials when the current jail was built.
Kent said with the debt payments on the building and state-mandated operation costs, there was little room for non-mandated repairs. Along with constant expenses, Kent said other emergency repairs cut into the budget.
He said two boilers that needed replaced were approximately $50,000 and a heating and air conditioning unit that stopped working was another $26,000 out of the budget.
“Other businesses are 9-5 and can shut off the lights and lower the thermostat,” Kent said. “Here, the heat, air, lights and water are used 24/7. I have a unit at my house that is older than the units here, but we are constantly using the equipment here and they wear out faster.”
Other maintenance items include replacing an exterior door that has a broken base to the extent of light being seen and a draft being felt through the crack in the door, resurfacing recreation area flooring and repairing cracked hallway floors in the jail cell blocks.
Cracks in the ballistic windows in the visitation area are also a concern. Kent said each window costs approximately $1,000 to replace.
Kent said the alternative to passing the levy would be along the lines of making cuts or closing sections of the only full-service jail in Crawford County.
He said that would include sending inmates to be housed in facilities in other counties, something Kent said could prove to be more expensive, as Crawford County still would be responsible for the inmates’ care.
According to Kent, it costs between $58 and $62 per day to house an inmate. He said some area counties charge as much as $75 per day to hold inmates for other agencies.
He added the operations and maintenance costs of the building still would not completely go away, as the building would still operate as the headquarters for the on-the-road operations.
He said another alternative would be to let the less-violent offenders to walk free allowing the chance for increased drug use and theft in the county.
“It would just tear our community apart,” Kent said. “I don’t see where it works out for anyone.”