Plan for county to buy office building sparks controversy

County Auditor Carl Johnson explains to Commissioner Al Riddle how having an item in the preliminary budget being discussed doesn't lock it in for approval

By LOU ANTONELLI
Editor-in-Chief

A proposal for the county to buy the one-story office building directly north of the county jail is being questioned.

County Commissioners at their Sept. 10 meeting approved paying Cowan Inspection of Mount Pleasant $700 to evaluate the building in the 200 block of Van Buren St.

Sheriff Tim Ingram told commissioners he would like to use the space for administrative offices for the sheriff’s office, moving the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and Environmental Services offices there.

Commissioner Al Riddle, who in the past has criticized county real estate purchases, said “We have spent over one million dollars to remodel the Elections office building, Adult Probation offices and the Riddle Street building.

“We spent over $50,000.00 to remodel the Witt Building on the corner and rented it out for a discounted price, letting the renters configure it to their needs. We spent over $300,000 to buy and remodel the Riddle Street building and rented it out.”

The commissioner took exception with the current real estate proposal and said County Judge Brian Lee was trying to push the purchase.

“You already told them to put it in the county budget,” said Riddle.

Lee denied that and said the building is in the budget so it can be discussed while the budget is being deliberated.

“That does not mean it has been approved,” said Lee.

“The state says it has to be in the budget to be discussed,” said County Auditor Carl Johnson.

The agenda for the Sept. 10 meeting also included an action item to pay $2,650 for a formal appraisal, but that item was tabled.

Commissioners agreed the building needs to be inspected first.

“We probably want to see what kind of condition it’s in,” said Lee.

“We may not want to get into it,” said Johnson.

Riddle said he believes the jail has enough space for its needs.

“The County Jail was built with the capacity of 182 prisoners,” he said. “A report for August, 2018 from the Jail Standards report for the previous 45 days we have averaged 99 prisoners per day. This includes prisoners that we are taking for other entities, such as other cities including out of state prisoners. We have been averaging around 100 prisoners per day for the last several years.

“The Sheriff says that the crime rate is being reduced due to his law enforcement abilities and I agree with him. Therefore if this trend continues we should need less jail space.

“The sheriff says that some jail cells cannot be used due to a plumbing problem and suggest that we buy a building for $250,000.00. The sheriff says that it would be expensive to make the plumbing repairs, because the floor is going to have to be broken up to make the necessary repairs.

“Would I be correct to assume that the County is not planning to make the necessary repairs and just leave this part of the jailed closed?

“I believe that we should find out exactly how much it would cost to repair the plumbing and compare that to the cost of buying another old building and configuring that building to fit our needs.“

Sheriff Ingram said the problem he has is with office space, not jail space, and the State Commissioner on Jail Standards would not allow him to locate offices in empty jail space.

Riddle suggested the basement of the jail could be finished out rather than buying another building.