Published: June 25, 2009 07:50 am      

Sheriff schedules meetings to discuss proposed jail

Citizens will have an opportunity to ask questions about a proposed new Woodward County Jail before the Aug. 11 election on whether to increase the sales tax to pay for it.

Woodward County Sheriff Gary Stanley said five town hall meetings have been scheduled throughout the county.

They are: •Fort Supply City Hall, 7 p.m. July 7.

•Mutual Fair Building, 7 p.m. July 21, pending approval.

•Sharon Community Building, 7 p.m. July 28.

•Mooreland Community Center, 7 p.m. July 30.

•High Plains Technology Center, 7 p.m. Aug. 4.

Stanley said he will give a Power Point presentation showing pictures of the current jail and overcrowding.

It will depict details of the recent attempted jail escape and shower room facilities as well.

“The shower has been used for 32 years and is rusting out,” Stanley said.

It is only one of many other pictures he will use.

The presentation will also provide statistics about the need for a new jail.

“I think there is a lot of interest in the new jail,” Stanley said. “A lot of people have said they’ve been aware of the need for one. (The current) jail is overcrowded and obsolete.”

For example, he said, Woodward County currently has 1.76 beds per 1,000 people. Oklahoma County has over four beds per 1,000 and Kay County has six-and-a-half beds per 1,000 in their jail.

The Woodward County Jail has 41 beds.

Stanley said the county has about 2,000 unserved warrants, partly due to overcrowding at the jail.

“In some cases we don’t arrest people, because we don’t have a place to put them,” he said.

The new jail, which will cost $10 million, will be very secure, Stanley said, with 118 to 124 beds.

It also will include an indoor exercise area.

Stanley said that some people who may be under the impression that the new jail will be comfortable for inmates are wrong.

The floor will be cement and the walls made out of concrete, he said.

“If anything, it will be very secure,” he said, noting, “Anytime you’re locked up it’s a harsh deal.”

Also, “we’ll be able to shut the water off to each pod if someone wants to flood the jail,” he said. “Control will be much stricter.”

Of the $10 million figure to pay for the new jail, 40 percent will go to labor costs and 50 percent to material costs, he said.

“Much of the money will go to local contractors and suppliers,” he said.

The cost of the new jail will be paid for by an increase in the sales tax.

The county currently has one in effect in the amount of two tenths of a cent. A sales tax increase to pay off the new jail over a 10-year period would raise that amount by five eighths of a cent to .825 of a cent until the jail was paid off.

After the jail was paid for, the sales tax would revert to four tenths of a cent, of which two tenths would pay for maintenance, operation and salaries for the jail.

The remaining two tenths of a cent would continue to pay for other county programs.

Stanley pointed out that by increasing the sales tax, 25 percent of it would be paid by people who don’t live in Woodward County.

“If it were to be an ad valorem tax, he said, 55 percent of the property owners in Woodward County would foot the bill,” he said.

A sales tax is fair to the people, he said.

If the sales tax increases passes by a vote of the people, money would then be borrowed to pay for the new jail.

“The interest rate is way down,” Stanley said, noting now was a good time to borrow.

According to the proposed schedule for the new jail, groundbreaking would be June 1, 2010, followed by a ribbon cutting June 1, 2012, and placement into service Aug. 1, 2012.

“If we vote in favor of this,” Stanley said, ”It will be three years when the jail is complete.”