Wednesday, October 17, 2001
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Wednesday, October 17, 2001 |
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County should enact impact fee for jail right nowI This paper ran an article in the Oct. 10 edition updating us on the issue of payment for the new jail and jail operations. The county commissioners and city officials do not appear any closer to resolving this issue than they did a year ago. Who should pay for the cost of building the new jail? Who should pay for the operation of the jail? All citizens of Fayette County, whether you live in one of our fine municipalities or the unincorporated county, pay for both. City residents are taxed by the county, just like county residents. However, since the county and cities have not been able to resolve this issue and enact an impact fee, all citizens of Fayette County are paying an increasingly larger share of the cost of constructing the new jail. Hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the cost of construction have already been lost. The amount grows every day. I have heard, but not verified, that as much as $2 million will be lost from the time the impact fee was introduced to the end of this year. The citizens of this county should be outraged. The elected officials should resolve this issue immediately and stop draining the coffers of the citizens they serve. If the cities are some how gaining an advantage over the county by being able to house their prisoners in the county jail, so what? The city residents pay for the jail just like county residents. They are county residents. If the cities have to agree to items they don't like, so what? Right now everyone is paying more than we should. I urge everyone to contact the county commissioners and city council members and urge them to enact the impact fee immediately. Stephen Ott Fayetteville
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