GREENFIELD — The Hancock County Board of Commissioners say building a new jail in downtown Greenfield is the best option for both the county and city — it wouldn’t increase the cost of the project by moving it outside of city limits and would avoid inefficiencies of services between county departments.
Greenfield’s mayor and most of its city council members, however, disagree. They want the jail to leave the downtown area, saying it would disrupt the revitalization of the city and force some people out of their homes.
The commissioners discussed the jail plan with the Greenfield City Council during their meeting Wednesday evening. In past talks between the Hancock County Council and commissioners, a few county council members have said Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell and other city leaders were resistant to a downtown jail.
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Brad Armstrong, president of the commission, apologized on Wednesday if the city felt alienated from the jail process, adding that the county strives to co-exist with the city and has invested much into downtown Greenfield.
“We’ve really gone the extra mile to be open and transparent in this whole process,” Armstrong said. “We’ve had numerous public meetings, numerous night meetings, numerous joint meetings. It’s a big project, a ton of money — more money than we should ever have to spend to take care of criminals. But it’s the reality that if we don’t do that, we’re not going to have a community that’s safe and we’re going to prosper in.”
The county has been studying the overcrowded county jail since 2010, and intensified discussions in 2015. The jail, which has been located in downtown Greenfield since 1988, has been increasingly overcrowded over the past few years. Recently, jail officials said more than 240 inmates have been housed in the 157-bed facility.
The public voted down a referendum in May that would’ve increased property taxes in order to pay for part of the $55 million price tag for a new jail downtown. The proposed site for the 440-bed facility and sheriff’s offices was at the corner of Meek and South streets, east of the courthouse annex and north of the Pennsy Trail. The county would have to purchase and demolish five homes on the site for construction.
The plan also included moving community corrections into the current jail building, taking the probation department out of the courthouse and moving it into the administration offices at the sheriff’s department and putting the prosecutor’s office in the community corrections facility.
After the referendum failed and the county council faced concerns about Greenfield objecting to a new downtown jail, they voted in June to move the proposed jail outside of the city limits and on an area of land known as the county farm, located along U.S. 40 between county roads 400E and 500E.
Fewell said the proposed downtown location would “uproot” Greenfield residents and place the jail next to the Pennsy Trail and park area, adding he doesn’t want the new jail built in any part of the city. He would rather it go to the county farm since there’s more area there for expansion.
“I’m not opposed to your building,” he said. “I like your building. … I’m opposed to location.”
Removing the homes for the project would cause the city to lose $5,000 to $10,000 in assessed value for those plots, Fewell said. Commissioner Marc Huber countered that notion, saying the city would lose upwards of $20,000 a month in utilities if the jail and other judicial offices leave downtown. Fewell said the city would still provide sewer and water utilities to the jail if it moved to the county farm.
Councilman Mitch Pendlum said he was disappointed the county didn’t communicate with the city council about the jail process. He doesn’t like having the jail downtown now or in the future, adding that he and many of his constituents don’t like it when officers walk inmates outside from jail to the courthouse.
“It should’ve never been put there to begin with. It’s too crowded. It’s bad,” Pendlum said.
Gary McDaniel, councilman for District 1, said he also doesn’t like the location of the proposed jail.
“I just don’t like the idea of a jail overlooking our Pennsy Trail,” he said. “It’s not a good feeling to me.”
McDaniel also said he’s heard from many people who are upset about the costs of the jail. He said they voted it down and now don’t like it being “shoved down their throats.” The vote against the referendum was not, however, a vote against the project itself. Rather, the measure’s failure to pass just meant 547 more Hancock County residents didn’t want to pay for the $55 million project through property taxes.
Building the jail and sheriff’s offices on the county farm would increase costs of the project, Armstrong, Huber and Commissioner John Jessup told the city council. And if the city doesn’t want any criminals downtown for the long-term, maybe the county should move probation, courts, prosecutor’s office and possibly community corrections to the county farm. That could double the project in cost, to possibly $100 million, and add years of construction, they said.
“We’re not doing a bunch of ‘pie in the sky,’ feel-good projects,” Armstrong said. “We all love this community, and we want it to be safe. And it’s a reality that we have. We have way more criminals than we have places to put them.”
Huber said the Greenfield Police Department made over 600 arrests in 2017, while all other county law enforcement departments made more than 700 arrests.
Maj. Brad Burkhart, chief deputy with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, said moving inmates from place to place is always a security concern, so transporting them from an outside campus to downtown could create more issues. He estimates the county would have to pay almost half a million dollars each year in inefficiencies of transportation and personnel with split campuses.
Councilman Jeff Lowder said he’s not opposed to keeping the jail downtown. He would hope the city and county could find a reasonable solution so Hancock County taxpayers won’t have to pay even more to build a jail and judicial system campus outside of the city.
The commissioners on Wednesday gave a resolution to the city council about the downtown jail proposal. Council president Kerry Grass said their legal counsel will review the resolution and the council may discuss the resolution at next month’s meeting.
With most of the city leaders voicing opposition to a downtown jail, Armstrong said the county may have to figure out the next steps in bringing the jail and most of the judicial system outside of Greenfield.
“I appreciate downtown Greenfield. We are a corporate citizen with you. We have a focal point down here in our care — the courthouse,” Armstrong said. “But let’s not settle this short — if we split this campus up, it’s going to flat burden the entire county of taxpayers double what it would if we were allowed to get to where we need to be for a downtown campus.”
