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Clear to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph..

Clear to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 70F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.

Tuesday’s presentation by Steve Waller includes this artist’s drawing that represents how the floorplan of the new Public Safety Center may appear. The new county jail and its offices are colored green. The law enforcement center that would contain offices for the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and the Vermillion Police Department, along with spaces that both departments would share, are colored blue. Waller stressed this is an artist’s drawing and does not represent an architect’s work.

Nearly 40 people were on hand to listen to Steve Waller present information about the proposed new county jail and law enforcement center. Waller is leading the charge of informing local citizens of the need to construct the facilities through a new independent group known as Citizens For The New Public Safety Center.

Tuesday’s presentation by Steve Waller includes this artist’s drawing that represents how the floorplan of the new Public Safety Center may appear. The new county jail and its offices are colored green. The law enforcement center that would contain offices for the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and the Vermillion Police Department, along with spaces that both departments would share, are colored blue. Waller stressed this is an artist’s drawing and does not represent an architect’s work.

Nearly 40 people were on hand to listen to Steve Waller present information about the proposed new county jail and law enforcement center. Waller is leading the charge of informing local citizens of the need to construct the facilities through a new independent group known as Citizens For The New Public Safety Center.

A new jail and law enforcement center will cost in the neighborhood of $39 million and will increase annual Clay County property taxes by an estimated $128 per $100,000 in assessed valuations should the Clay County Commission seek a bond issue to finance the construction of the new building and should voters approve the commission’s action.

That’s according to Steve Waller, who gave a two-hour presentation before an audience of 40 people Tuesday evening in the Edith B. Siegrist Public Library in Vermillion.

Waller, the former chair of the Jail and Law Enforcement Center Facility Committee, is now leading the charge of informing local citizens of the need to construct a new county jail and law enforcement center through a new independent group known as Citizens For The New Public Safety Center.

The group was formed voluntarily by local citizens after the Clay County Commission disbanded the Jail and Law Enforcement Center Facility Committee.

His presentation included PowerPoint slides that gave the audience a visual idea of how the exterior of the building may appear and the possible design of the interior of the jail and law enforcement center. Waller stressed that the images are an artist’s rendition of the new facility’s possible appearance and possible design.

They do not represent a design being presented by an architect working on the project because, at present, a new jail and law enforcement center is merely an idea.

His presentation also includes data that demonstrates that Clay County citizens will forever be drained financially by the present practices of housing prisoners in the local jail for 72 hours before housing them in nearby county jails at costs ranging from $65 to $105 per day.

A new jail, even with a multi-million-dollar price tag, is a financially prudent route for Clay County to take, Waller said.

The new facility is proposed to be constructed on a parcel of land located at the corner of Stanford and Cherry streets.

That would happen, however, only if the Clay County Commission agrees to a bond issue to provide the $39 million for the purchase of the land and the new facility’s construction.

At this date, the commission has not yet decided whether to issue bonds. Whenever it does, Clay County citizens will have the final say through a bond election. Whether that election is held this November will depend on whether the commission decides on issuing the bonds during a meeting early next month.

Waller began his presentation by telling attendees that the information he was about to share is current but subject to change, adding that there are ongoing efforts to improve the design and reduce costs.

One of the first slides of his presentation is an artist’s idea of how the exterior of a new county jail/law enforcement center may appear at the site that is currently being considered at the corner of Stanford and Cherry streets.

“When I say, ‘currently being considered,’ it is very loosely being considered,” he said. “There is no final sketch, no final design, no final floor plan, no final budget yet. Until we actually get the money in hand and move forward with this process, a lot of these decisions won’t be made.

“To be honest with you, there’s not even a bond election yet,” Waller added. “The county commissioners have not acted at this time on any initiative to start a bond election come November. Based on their last meeting, the target is to do that in the early August meetings.”

The county commission passed a resolution last spring for a $39.186 bond issue with the goal of having the question of whether to issue the bonds decided by voters last June.

The commission decided to rescind the resolution during a meeting last April after hearing from local individuals that it was destined to fail with voters in the June election.

Commissioners expressed hope at that April meeting that it would pass a bond issue in the future that would be decided by voters in the November general election. That bond would still go towards funding the construction of a new jail and law enforcement center, but it will give local officials more time to explore a variety of options.

Waller told individuals participating in the meeting that an opinion piece published in the March 25 Vermillion Plain Talk by its editor, David Lias, made voter passage of the bond in June unlikely.

Lias wrote that the commission’s decision in late March to ask voters to approve a bond issue totaling approximately $39 million would fail in an election last June based on what happened a year earlier.

In June 2021, county voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar decision by the county commission.

The commission asked voters to go to the polls to decide whether the county should issue $41 million in bonds to finance the construction of a new county jail, law enforcement safety center, courts, government services, land acquisition costs, and current courthouse stabilization and exterior preservation.

Approximately two-thirds of people who participated in the 2021 bond election voted no.

Waller stressed that replacing the courthouse is not part of the plan currently being considered for a new public safety center that would house a new jail and new local law enforcement offices.

The new facility, with an estimated total construction cost of $39.2 million, will house new offices for the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and the Vermillion Police Department if voters approve the funding for the construction.

It will also include the Clay County Management Office and a new 911/Dispatch Communications Center.

The new jail would likely include a design with a centrally located control center that would allow staff to have visual observation of each inmate unit and control security. It would be made up of eight units, with each unit providing housing for multiple inmates with similar classifications.

The new jail will be designed to house a total of 44 prisoners.

A recreation unit in the unofficial design of the new facility would serve as a connecting hallway in future jail expansion if it is needed.

The jail and its administrative offices will cost an estimated $21.2 million.

The law enforcement center will be designed with several spaces shared by both the city police department and county sheriff’s department.

Those spaces include conference and training rooms, including rooms allowing inmates to appear in court via video.

Video visitations between prisoners and friends and family also would be possible.

Other shared spaces in the proposed design are an evidence room, locker rooms, an armory, an IT space that would also serve the jail, breakrooms and restrooms for staff and a main public lobby that would also feature restrooms.

The projected cost of the new law enforcement center is $18 million, shared by Clay County and the City of Vermillion.

Waller noted that county taxpayers are already footing a significant bill for the housing of county inmates. After the failure of the 2021 bond issue, it was decided to hold prisoners in the Clay County Jail for no longer than 72 hours because of safety concerns.

After that amount of time, inmates are taken to safer, more modern jail facilities in nearby counties, including Union, Yankton and Minnehaha counties.

In the first quarter of 2022, Clay County spent nearly $30,000 a month to house inmates.

Costs range from $60 per inmate per day in the Union County Jail to about $106 per inmate per day in the Minnehaha County Jail.

Those dollar figures don’t include the costs of transporting the prisoners or other expenses.

The county is paying for those extra expenses by opting out of the property tax freeze, meaning county taxpayers are footing that bill. The current opt-out has added $57 of real estate taxes per $100,000 of assessed property value.

The county’s projected bond cost is estimated to increase annual real estate taxes to $128 per $100,000 assessed property tax value. Waller noted that should a bond issue be approved this year, it would mean a bump in property taxes of $71 per $100,000 when the opt-out is taken into consideration.

Waller’s presentation notes that the current opt-out for $725,000 was required to cover not only the expense of housing inmates during 2022, but also to replenish the county’s cash reserves depleted by the unexpected cost of inmate housing in 2021.

The opt-out for 2022 will likely be smaller and will only have to cover the cost of inmate housing.

Should the construction bond pass, the opt-out expense would disappear when the jail opens.

If the bond issue fails, he noted, the opt-out will need to continue and will increase each year. Waller described it as a “forever expense” that would end when a jail is built for Clay County inmates.

In the short run, Waller said, one could conclude that it would be cheaper to house Clay County inmates in area jails.

“If everything stayed exactly the same … in 30 years we would only spend $10.8 million to house inmates in Union County,” he said. “That would be if everything would stay exactly the same – no increase in prison numbers, no increase in housing, nothing changes, but it would still be a ‘forever expense’ and will continue on, and again, everything would have to stay exactly the same and we know that won’t be the case.”

Inmate housing expenses will depend on how many inmates are housed and what area jails charge for inmate housing. Both will increase over time, Waller said.

His presentation notes that if the average daily census of Clay County prisoners increased by .75 inmates per year and the cost of housing in Union County went up by only $2 per day per inmate every year, in 30 years, the cumulative cost of housing the inmates in Union County could be over $30 million, which is roughly the cost of constructing the new jail. Those figures are based on history and projections.

In 40 years, well within the expected life of the new Public Safety Center, Waller said, the cumulative cost of housing inmates in Union County will be greater than $49 million and will continue to increase.

He also presented a graph that shows the projected annual cost of inmate housing in Union and Minnehaha counties. Currently, those costs range somewhere from approximately $500,000 to $750,000.

Without a new jail in Clay County, the bill for housing local prisoners in those two counties could range from $2.5 million to more than $3 million.

Those numbers, again, represent cumulative expenses.

“It goes on forever without a jail,” Waller said. “It doesn’t stop.”

A second graph of Waller’s shows that prisoner housing costs would stay at a steady $1.6 million per year for 30 years if Clay County constructs a new jail. The 30 years is the period that taxpayers would be making annual payments should Clay County citizens approve the bond issue.

“The bond payment would be a pretty level process. There’s a little bit of fluctuation in some of the numbers we got from the bonding agency, but it would end in 30 years and then the building is ours,” he said. “Our bond would be about $1.6 million or so per year.

“The county assumes the full cost of building because I believe the bonding agency requires a single owner of the structure, but the city would then pay back the county for their portion,” Waller said.

His presentation notes that local property taxes have already increased to pay for the construction of a new school and to pay for the housing of inmates.

They will only continue to increase, Waller said, should citizens again decide not to fund the construction of a new public safety center.

“The reality is that if we start the building process, we will find ourselves in a time where we actually start doing better,” he said. “Our taxes will go back down at the end of the bond period …”

In reaction to a comment from the audience, Waller said, “You have to continue paying for this (prisoner housing). It’s not an option. There’s not a luxury of saying, ‘we’re not going to do this anymore.’”

He included a phrase that Clay County Sheriff Andy Howe has often used when discussing the jail issue: “We pay to build a jail here or pay to build a jail elsewhere, but we will pay either way.”

During his presentation, Waller noted that the new independent group Citizens For The New Public Safety Center welcomes anyone who wants to serve and help make the center a reality.

Questions or other communication may be sent to Waller and group members at NewPSCin2022@gmail.com

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