What difference does it make where the jail is located? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    In a surprise, and some would say "underhanded," move four members of the Beaufort County Commission voted February 14, 2013 to build a new jail in the Industrial Park several miles outside downtown Washington. They did so before hearing all of the information that was presented to a "planning retreat" and there was no discussion about what moving the jail would mean for the downtown of the County Seat.

    The options for a new jail were presented by a consulting firm the Commissioners hired to advise it. The study is seriously flawed, as we have pointed out here without any rebuttal from anyone. Simply stated, the proposed jail is from twice to three times as large as it needs to be.

    But the real issue is not the size of the jail or even where it is located. The REAL issue is where the Sheriff's Department is going to be located into the future.

    The reason for building a jail in the Industrial Park is to accommodate the relocation of the Sheriff's Department there rather than keep the Sheriff's department downtown in the county government complex.

    If the current jail is replaced with an addition behind the Courthouse that decision pretty much locks in the Sheriff's Department remaining downtown. If they can get the jail moved to the Industrial Park it means the Sheriff's Department can be moved there later. And most likely that complex would include at least one courtroom for inmate hearings. Then it would be a simple matter of adding a couple more courtrooms and then it would just "make sense" to move the Clerk of Court's offices there also. And thus you've moved the "courthouse" out of Washington. And as soon as that happens, most of the attorney's will move their offices to be nearer the courthouse. And you can be sure somebody would soon propose that the Register of Deeds and Tax Office needed to be moved to the growing County Office Complex in the Industrial Park.

    So who cares?

    The push to move the Sheriff's Department came from the Sheriff and his staff, as well as some of the "courthouse" crew. That is because he stands a much better chance of getting a new, big Law Enforcement Complex outside of downtown than if the Sheriff's Office remains downtown.

    The other source of the energy--and the swing vote in the 4-3 decision (that of Al Klemm)--is reported to be coming from those who are desperate to see development in the Industrial Park. The complex has sat relatively un/under-used since it was built. It has never had a viable occupant and still has no such prospects in spite of the hoopla that Klemm and his cohorts who want credit for "economic development" contend.

    The problem, of course, is that if county business is moved to the Industrial Park it more or less devastates the downtown of the County Seat. In fact the jobs that would be moved out of downtown if the Sheriff's Office is moved will mean the second largest employer in the downtown area will be lost. And more than the actual direct economic impact of those jobs, the loss of "activity" will contribute to the "deserted" look along with the empty storefronts we now have, to say nothing about the crime-prevention aspects. And if the "courthouse" (including the attorney's offices) move out of downtown it will cause a ripple effect from which the downtown will likely never recover.

    So the tipping point issue here is the jail. The loss of the jail from downtown is not nearly as significant as the trigger that it presents that starts a snowball rolling that could eventually kill the downtown.

    And all of this ignores the additional cost of county, Aurora, Belhaven, Chocowinity and Washington officers having to travel further to book a arrestee or the inconvenience to people who need the service of magistrates.

    But at least it would give some justification for the boondoggle that is the Industrial Park. Maybe the Skills Center could be used to retrain jail inmates? And of course it would make it a little easier for Greenville attorney's to operate in Beaufort County.

    Of such things is the planning for which this Board of County Commissioners is infamous.

    In fact, what we are seeing with the jail issue is very much like the poor planning we saw these same people do on the $33 million school bond issue, that ended up costing $39.4 million and built $20 million in classrooms where there are not enough students to fill them up. It is the same group of people who decided to give the hospital away in a no-bid deal that will end up costing the county more than $50 million, minimum. And it is the same group that has spent over $10 million on failed economic development boondoggles subsidizing at-risk failing companies with corporate welfare that could have been spent on things that would have actually produced a return on investment if they had planned better--such as reducing taxes on struggling businesses; and the same thinking led them to chase ethanol plants touted by corrupt shysters, some of whom ended up in prison. And it is the same group that bought into a pie in the sky scheme to build windmills and solar farms to increase the tax base only to learn that the exemptions in give-aways will result in less than 1/5 of what they believed they would get. And it is the same crew, more or less, and exactly the same poor planning that led to the worst financial disaster in the county's history with a $192 million bridge being built where it simply drains economic impact out of the county rather than contributing to it.

    Now they are doing it again.