Prior to the construction phase, Genesee County will need to have its four-member corrections’ officer transition team in place to write policies and procedures covering the $70 million, 184-bed county jail proposed for West Main Street Road, just east of County Building 2.
County Manager Matt Landers last week updated legislators on the progress of the jail, continuing to express confidence that groundbreaking will take place next spring.
Appointing those to be on the transition team and reviewing and approving engineering specifications are current priorities, he said.
“We’ve always known that there was going to be a jail transition team that would be responsible for writing all of the policies and procedures of the new facility, and the (New York State) COC (Commission of Correction) requires that this team be hired as soon as the first shovel is in the ground,” Landers said.
The plan is to take four current county corrections’ officers and assigning them to the transition team, and then to “backfill” the positions that would be open afterwards.
“And that’s when we would hope to increase our efforts to hire more female COs because we will be housing females in the new facility,” he advised.
Landers said Assistant Engineer Laura Wadham and Deputy Highway Superintendent Paul Osborn are poring over the drawings to make sure “everything from a technical engineering perspective is being considered on the site.”
The county is continuing the State Environmental Quality Review process, working with the SMRT architectural firm of Portland, Me.
“Hopefully we can go out to bid near the end of the year and be in position to award contracts in the spring,” Landers said, adding that the new four-pod jail would include a backup E-911 Center. Currently, that service is located in the Genesee Justice building at 14 West Main St.
The county is planning to take out a 30-year bond to pay for the jail, with annual payments estimated at $3 million to $3.5 million, Landers said.
“Interest rates are historically low right now, which is in our favor,” he said. “Plus, this (financing of the jail) is one of the reasons for the restructuring of the sales tax distribution agreement with the towns and villages so we can utilize more of that revenue to pay off the jail.”
Landers said that portions of the sales tax proceeds and reserves would go to the debt service payment.
“Over the next decade or so, we would use less and less reserves on an annual basis, and more of the sales tax as sales tax revenue grows,” he noted.
In another development, Landers today said the Genesee County Legislature will be conducting a Committee of the Whole meeting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Old County Courthouse.
That meeting has been set up for legislators to go over the results of the 2020 Census as they pertain to population shifts in the county’s nine legislative districts.
"For us, we utilize weighted voting in Genesee County … so we have to go through the process of updating our calculations – updating the weighting of each legislative district," he said.
He said the process includes hiring a consultant to certify the results and then a public referendum on the November 2022 ballot to ratify the changes, which would take effect in January 2023.
The regular County Legislature meeting will follow the COW session.
File photo of, clockwise from left, lobby, kitchen, dayroom, visitation area of facility similar to proposed new Genesee County Jail.
