This letter is about the new jail. Over the past few days we have been hearing about a new jail for Hancock County. I feel this is being done as quietly as possible. The owners of the affected property have not been informed about where they want to place it. We have found out about the current plans by reading the Greenfield Daily Reporter.
Despite the statement in the paper that several of the owners have been notified and were in favor of the project, all five of the owners have had no discussions or interviews by anyone about the new jail.
The owners are against it. Of the five properties, three of the properties are rental houses. One is a rental with three apartments. That means that seven families will have to move not knowing what the cost of moving and the cost of the new housing will be or the amount of rent they will have to pay.
None of the owners are knee deep in money, and the rental owners depend on the income the properties provide. At least one depends on the rent as part of the plan for retirement income. Most have been continually updated to preserve the value of the properties.
At least some of the properties are located in a flood plain area, and technically nothing can be built on them. There is also an additional property that must be purchased because putting a building on the proposed area will make it “land locked.”
Adding to that, some of the properties back up to Jack & Sons Auto Salvage junkyard which might bring up environmental issues with a public building being built in proximity to the junkyard.
When the present jail was built, I am sure that everyone thought it was quite large enough to take care of future needs. WRONG … With the present plans, there will eventually need to be an expansion of the proposed jail, and there will be no room to do it without going east which will be into Jack & Sons property.
All of this also begs the question: What are they doing? The county already has enough land to build the jail elsewhere. Hamilton County has a jail system that has the courts in one place and the jail in another with many cases being handled over closed circuit TV.
There is also the question of whether the property owner will be treated fairly. When the annex building was being built, the county lowballed the estimated property values. Until they got caught on that move, they would have happily cheated the property owners on the west side of Meek Street.
This new move has been kept quiet, and there are many people in the county who had no idea the new jail construction was proceeding until it appeared on the ballot during this last election. The financing was defeated, but now they are trying to figure out a way to get the money by hook or crook with no approval from the county residents.
Jack Mathes is a Greenfield resident. Send comments to [email protected].
