Anyone who has ever owned a home or a commercial building can tell you that such an ownership is a great responsibility and takes a great deal of maintenance to protect their investment. The best example of this is in the report from Garver and Garver engineering. This building was built in 1974, just 33 years old, but has sustained the equivalent of 100 years worth of damage all because no one thought it important enough to fix, what started out as, a small leak in the roof. Recently, as the County Budget Chairman, I was told that the 1.3 million dollars in repairs has skyrocketed to 5.7 million to bring the building back up to 2008 building code standards and to remove the environmentally unsafe materials.
As an insurance agent for 28 years, I can tell you that the number one cause of wear and tear on a building of ANY kind in Arkansas is moisture and water damage. If only the official at the county tasked with the responsibility of maintaining the tax payers investment in these buildings had taken his duty seriously enough to pay attention to the small leaks, the Quorum Court would not be faced with spending 5.7 million more of the tax payers money to replace something they had already paid for. It doesnt do the public any good at all if we are going to build new buildings (prosecutors building) and new bridges, (the
Big Dam Bridge) if we are just going to neglect them and let them deteriorate. This is not very good stewardship for the people.
But we cant put the toothpaste back into the tube, and you cant change the past. All you can do is learn from it and charge forward. There are 22 employees currently housed in the old part of the jail that need to be moved to a safer location as soon as possible. We can move a portable office building on to the grounds and give our hard working employees a great working environment.
The last large payment on the new prosecutors building will be paid this year, which leaves us room to do what normal people do and borrow money to build a new 250-bed section of the jail. This new section should be finished and ready to occupy by mid to late 2009. The county is gaining revenue at a rate of 3.5% to 4% each year. By the time the new section is complete, county revenue should have increased by 5 million dollars. In addition, the county should soon be reaping the rewards of the removal of the tax cap of the purchase of items over 2500.00 that just went into effect January 1st. The County Sheriff has reported that he only needs 2.5 to 3 million to operate the additional beds. This will not cure all of our problems, but it will go a long way to improving our current situation. All of this, of course, is dependent on the cities continued contribution to the county jail.
Even with all that we have going, there are still those out there that think we need a new
jail tax passed in order to resolve the problems at the county jail. But we have to stop throwing taxpayers money at every problem that comes up. Responsible spending, good business management and patience are not the
fast and easy way to resolve our problems. Yes, its more difficult, and it takes time, but it just happens to be the
RIGHT way.
Allen Kerr
(If you would like to view this report, you may come by our office at 1429 Merrill Drive, Little Rock, between the hours of 10AM and 2:00PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)
