http://www.freerepublic.com/
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Report: $5.7 Million Needed to Fix Pulaski County Jail
http://www.cwarkansas.com/news/local/story
The hope to fix the old Pulaski County jail this month is fading fast. An engineering report released Monday and obtained by FOX16 News shows the cost to repair the old jail is five times more than county leaders originally thought. In response to the report, one quorum court member feels taxpayers will be better off if the old jail is torn down given the latest cost estimates. Allen Kerr, District 3Justice of the Peace, says it is time to look for other solutions. The Garver Engineering report reveals conditions unfit for holding inmates and millions of dollars needed to fix it. Photos taken from the report of the old Pulaski County jail taken show numerous problems with leaky roofs, extensive mold and asbestos, even roach infestation. "The information we got today is quite shocking,” Kerr says. “It's about five times what we thought it was to start with." The Garver study suggests $5,751,920 is needed to fix the old jail and house inmates again. Kerr doesn't see that happening and says the jail should not have been allowed to decline to its present state.
“Pure and simple it's just neglect,” Kerr says. “The county has let this building go for such a long time." Last October, Sheriff Doc Holladay and Treasurer Debra Buckner started the First Step Program soliciting public donations to raise a little more than $100,000, the amount believed enough to get the jail ready to accept prisoners again. Checking the treasurer website on Monday, $18,863 toward the goal had been raised. Kerr says that’s no reason to stop contributing. "Nothing is a waste,” Kerr says. It just means our challenge is much bigger than what we thought it was." Kerr still supports a temporary steel building to get more inmates in sooner but says with the release of this report, he's open to anything.
"I had prepared myself in the back of my mind for maybe $3 million dollars, but I never thought they would come up with almost $6 million dollars," Kerr says. "It's another setback, it's a financial setback, but we're going to figure out a way to get around it." Buckner says no matter how much the repair cost estimate is, all the money donated to the First Step program will still go to fixing the jail or to help build a new facility.
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The anti-American Arkansas Times just posted a story about how the Pulaski Government $880,000 went toward the prison system. OOPS! that went toward putting up lights on The Big Dam Bridge (a walkway that does virtually nothing for Arkansas)! We could use $50,000 from the Little Rock Economic Development Fund, but that went toward the Mexican Consulate thanks to the Little Rock government. We could use $10,000 from the Governor's Emergency Fund, but that went toward the Mexican Consulate thanks to Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee.
Speaking of Huckabee, maybe he could negotiate Bruce Barrow to repair the jail or build a new one? Instead, Mike had Bruce Barrow build a $1,2000,000 Consulate for Mexico. We could request $27,000,000 from the Federal Government to build several new prisons, pay corrections officers, and train our police on 287G to enforce immigration law, but we decided to look for the ivory billed woodpecker instead.
While most of the screwups I mentioned are acts of stupidity of the current government of Arkansas, the years of neglect of the Pulaski County Prison can also be credited to a Presidential Candidate who was Governor of the State for several years. Here's what should have been done to the Pulaski County Prison but instead was done for Mexico:
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