"Medieval dungeon" or a cold dark corner of Al Klemm's mind | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Al Klemm and the gang of four are at it again. Spreading false information and spinning the facts about both the existing and future jails. Klemm showed up to give what, according to a local newspaper, Rocky Jacobs described as "diffusing information" for the purpose educating a local group called the "Workforce Partnership" in how to combat false information. They put that foxy Klemm in the chicken house.

    If you have never heard of this group of people and the work they do you have not been deprived of anything of value. This is a group put together by Buster Humphries thru the Committee of 100 about six years ago to assist manufacturers coming into Beaufort County in obtaining information, provide assistance and training the local work force. They have not had a lot to do. According to Rocky Jacobs, leader of the Workforce Partnership, Klemm was asked to expound on how a 25 acre jail site would fit into a small industrial park. Jacobs says there were concerns that the jail would be adjacent to the Economic Development headquarters building in the Washington Industrial Park. It was reported that Al predicated his plan by explain how bad the current jail situation is. He compared it to a dungeon.

    Comparing the jail to a dungeon is a gross exaggeration. Our jail meets the standards for a jail. It has only been condemned in the dark cold corners of a few of our heavy thinkers. Wonder why they don't produce some jail reports showing what standards are not being met?

    It is disturbing that the argument that the present jail is in the flood zone continues to be used as justification to move the jail to the industrial park. The present jail has always been in the flood zone. This is an inconvenience only when a hurricane is approaching. The surface of the ground at the jail is only one foot below the base flood elevation and the jail has never been flooded. The bottom floor of the proposed two story jail will be at an elevation of about 21 feet in a 10 foot flood zone. Therefore, it will not be in a flood zone. The flood zone is not an issue in the future of the jail.

    Klemm talks about fire hazards. That is not much more of an issue in the present jail that will be true in a brand new jail. The current jail is built with brick walls, steel walls, iron bars, steel ceilings, and concrete and ceramic floors. The only thing that can burn is bedding. Almost all garments and bedding is fire retardant. But the same would be true in a new jail. I guess Klemm and the Sheriff forgot to tell us the jail meets the fire code for jails. The Sheriff thought it was so safe he tried to install Plexiglas which does not meet the fire code and was ordered by the State to remove it. That little mistake cost us about $40,000.
Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson speaking to many of his constituents at the Candidates Forum, help on April 2, 2012 at Beaufort CountyCommunity College: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage

    According the article Klemm admitted the commission's error in omitting the city's input by not including a city official on the committee. This is a gross mis-statement. What good would it have been to have had a city official on the jail committee when the committee never voted on where to build the jail? The vote on where to build the jail came when Jerry Langley realized, during the commissioners retreat, the efforts to guide the architectural studies into a forced decision to build the jail off site had been unmasked by articles presented in the Beaufort Observer section of the County Compass. By consensus agreement, votes are not taken at the annual commissioners' retreat. When Langley saw his plan to move the jail, and later the Sheriff and court house, from down town Washington was being defeated by the facts, he announced that he had the votes to build the jail out of town and called in his votes. The location of the jail was not on the agenda and has never been voted on by the jail committee.

    The article indicates Klemm disagrees with building extra cells for Federal inmates. That was a good idea ten years ago before all the new jails built extra space to rent to others. Now that everyone has done it, there is competition for prisoners to rent cells. Beaufort County never did a study to see what market conditions are in eastern North Carolina. We are clueless as to how may cells we could rent, if any. Klemm taking this position without a study has violated all his principles about how great his is in making business decisions from objective information. We do not need to over build a jail without a contract to rent the cells and we need to have hard data on whether it is feasible to contract out housing some prisoners to address periodic overcrowding. The real point on cell renting is that we need hard data on current market supply and demand. Again, Mr. Klemm, like on the hospital, has made a decision before he has the facts.

    Klemm says the committee considered three locations outside the down town area. This statement is completely untrue, false and misleading. The committee never considered any specific site other than down town at the court house. The 25 acre site was entirely fictional to be specified at a later date if the court house site could not be used. A vote was never taken by the jail committee on any site.

    Klemm goes on to say the consultants recommended building on a 25 acre lot, the county would save about $15 million by building out side the downtown and save money on operational costs once the jail was completed. These statements are equally as outrageous as his previous falsehoods. The consultants never picked the size of the lot, they talked about what the county could afford to purchase and what was available. Klemm got the 15million dollars in savings by building in the industrial park from a very cold and disoriented corner of his mind. The Architects specifically stated that it was too early in the process to be making cost comparisons. There were discussions, along with my objections, about making the courthouse site look expensive by including an un-needed five million dollar concrete parking deck. The Architects cautioned that they were deliberately using high prices at this phase because they did not want to have to jack up prices later on. A study has never been done on operating costs. Every time I brought it up along with the cost of transporting prisoners Klemm, Langley and the Sheriff refused to listen. Again, the Architects said we needed to be further into the site selection process before we compared operating costs.

    The simple facts are that the commissioners' vote to locate the jail is not based on operating and construction costs, marketing surplus cells or the needs of the county particularly the other capital needs over the next decade. I t is a political vote to continue to destroy the historic heritage of Beaufort County and the further the grand scheme to acquire a new palace for the Sheriff with a new and unnecessary court house. With this plan the taxpayers have only begun to pay. We have wasted 192 million dollars on a road to nowhere, wasted 50 million on the hospital system, and overbuilt the schools by 2,000 seats or three schools. The same people are making the decision on the future of down town Washington without the city being involved and now "diffusing misinformation."

poll#29
Considering his many questionable votes over the last 6 years as a county commissioner: Is Al Klemm a real Republican?
5.47%   Yes
87.89%   No
6.64%   Not sure
256 total vote(s)     Voting has Ended!

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