Commission looks over credentials from architects on proposed jail plan

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

On Friday, Jan. 12, a committee met with the Vernon County Commissioners, including the newly named Southern Commissioner, Kennon Shaw, who was sworn in today, to discuss the need for a new county jail and to present qualifications of three architects.

The three firms are: ASAI; Shaughnessy, Fickel and Scott; Goldberg, Sullivan and McCrerey. The committee was led by Circuit Judge James Bickel and Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman.

One member, Jim Wilson, said that the proposal should encompass more than just the bricks and mortar of a jail.

"The proposal should not be just a new jail," Wilson said. "It should be to support law enforcement, to increase the deputies' pay and improve their equipment."

Wilson said the new jail was needed, not just for additional space to house prisoners but for better working conditions for the staff of the sheriff's office. Northern Commissioner Neal Gerster agreed.

"The workspace for the deputies is more important than the space for the prisoners," Gerster said.

Wilson pointed out that the county could be liable if something should happen to someone at the jail.

"The current jail is a serious threat and a huge (legal) exposure for the commissioners," Wilson said. "If something happened and a judge ordered the jail closed, you would have to pay for housing prisoners elsewhere; you would have to pay to build a new jail; and you would have to pay the costs from the incident that caused the closing. It would take approximately 18 months to get a jail built and you would have those costs the whole time."

Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord asked the committee how they wished to proceed -- to try to coordinate a petition initiative or to have the commission put it on the ballot themselves. Bickel said that he didn't think anyone on the committee had the time to circulate the petitions needed to put it on the ballot, so they were asking the commission to do it without a petition.

McCord said she had seen jail proposals before and they had failed. Bickel responded it that is up to the community leaders to educate the public about the issue.

"In my time on the commission, this has been tried twice and failed twice," McCord said.

"We as leaders have to show the need for this," Bickel said. "I've heard from others about the previous attempts, about why they failed. It's not that we don't need a jail -- we need a jail. It was the details that caused them to fail."

Peckman said he had spoken to all the area's state and federal leaders about the issue.

"I've talked to all of them," Peckman said. "Congressman Skelton, Kit Bond, Chris Koster, Barney Fisher and Claire McCaskill and they all said they would do what they could to help."

The key to getting that help is for the area to start the process, nothing could be done without the local effort succeeding first.

"It's a great way to leverage what we can do," Peckman said. "We just have to get the ball rolling."

Committee members include Bickel, Peckman, Greg Hoffman, Jeff Feuquay, Associate Circuit Judge Neal Quitno, Kathi Wysong, Leonard Ernsbarger, Jim Wilson, Vicki Garton and Bill Erwin.

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