By Gloria Trotter , The Tecumseh Countywide News
WINNING EDITORIAL-June 2002
1956 T-Bird, turquoise and white, completely restored of course.
But unless I win a sweepstakes or lottery, it's not happening. The cost of restoring a 45-year-old car to its original condition puts it completely out of my price range, and even if I had the money, I couldn't justify spending it on what would still be a 45-year-old car.
It would make a lot more sense to put that money in a well-built new car, with the latest safety features and high-tech gizmos. I could count on that car lasting a while, I suspect.
Maybe it's not a perfect analogy, but I think you can apply some of the same reasoning to the question of building a new county jail. For weeks, we've been reading those anonymous phoned-in comments in Shawnee's daily newspaper, some of which make sense but many of which are completely off the wall. The trouble is, it's hard to tell the difference.
Let's just look at a couple of recurring themes. One or more people (how do you know how many if there are no names?) have insisted that the current county jail should be repaired rather than building a new one. Well, I'd be willing to bet that comment came from someone who's never been in that jail.
I have, and even I can see that putting more than 98 cents into that 65-year-old dinosaur of a jail would be foolish. Our county courthouse is an architectural gem, but it is also a maintenance nightmare. Marble steps are dangerous when wet. Making modern heating and cooling systems function is a constant challenge. The electrical wiring is old and inadequate for today's technology, and we're not even talking about computers here.
The jail is a multi-story affair, which means there must be a jailer on each floor where there are prisoners. Newer jails, like the one the county would like to build, use podular systems where all prisoners are on the same level and are monitored by video at a centralized station-by one person. That simply isn't possible in the existing jail.
Even if it were gutted and completely redone, it could never be as efficient and safe as a new facility. In the past couple of years, there have been jail breaks, a death and an alleged rape-accomplished when a male prisoner literally dug through the wall to reach the female prisoner's cell. Good grief! And there is no effective way to keep younger prisoners away from the older ones as the law requires.
It would be like trying to rewire the appliances in your grandmother's kitchen instead of buying new ones. It just doesn't make sense.
Neither does building a jail on the courthouse parking lot. Because that space is small, it would have to go up, and you'd have the same staffing problems you have now. The county has already purchased land on U.S. 177 next to the juvenile detention center, and cynic and critic that I am, I promise you that was a great deal and a good move on their part.
There are lots of questions about how this proposal has been put together, and I promise you I have asked most of them. Sid Clarke, I'm sure, grinds his teeth when they say I'm on the phone. I haven't liked all the answers I've gotten, and some of the questions were never answered. I'd rather know exactly what we're going to build and exactly how much it will cost. But I'm convinced that while the price tag seems too high, the size they propose is about right. Yes, we will soon need 150 jail beds. It would be stupid to build anything smaller. I'm just putting my faith in Randy Gilbert and Larry Briggs and Clayton Eads to make sure we build it as economically as possible.
The bottom line is that we must solve this jail problem, and a new jail is the best way. We can't keep fixing and driving that old clunker. It's not safe or smart.
And, by the way, the other 80 percent of that penny sales tax money has gone a long way to make all our lives better the past few years. Don't throw us back in the briar patch by voting no or worse, not voting at all.
It is critical that you go to the polls Tuesday, and I hope that when you do, you'll vote for a safe and sound future for Pottawatomie County