The Floyd County Youth Shelter needs a new home. The jail is always overcrowded and the county is facing serious financial difficulties.

No question, 2010 will be a challenging year for county officials.

“There are a lot of decisions that have to be made in 2010,” said veteran County Councilman Larry McAllister.

Maybe the most pressing decision is what to do with the youth shelter which is currently housed in the North Annex along Grant Line Road. For six years the debate, and the work to find a new home, have been ongoing. Plans to build a new facility were scrapped two years ago when the economy began to sputter.

Last year Youth Shelter Executive Director Leah Pezzarossi and County Planner Don Lopp looked at existing buildings, and different sites, trying to find the perfect fit for the shelter. A small section of Sam Peden Community Park was chosen, but that idea has been shelved for the time being. Other spots, like building at the Floyd County 4-H Fairgrounds property and behind Home Depot on State Street, have also been suggested.

“It’s at a standstill right now,” Pezzarossi said. “There are no definite plans. I would like to think [2010] is the year, but I’m a realist.”

County Commissioner Steve Bush, who is ending his reign as president of the commissioners, said the youth shelter has “always been a priority in my opinion.”

“We have to find a place to properly house the kids,” Bush said. “I think everyone is tired of hearing about it. We have to look at what is best for the kids and the county.”

Bush said he would like to see the facility remain in the city since 80 percent of the occupants at the shelter are from the city. He also said he is not in favor of building a new facility in Community Park.

“The park is not at the top of my list ... I’m not in favor of that whatsoever,” he said.

Bush said he thinks the 4-H would make a good location. He also said the county could partner with a private company to build a new shelter, and then lease it.

The property the North Annex sits on what was being marketed by the commissioners earlier in 2009, but that talk has also cooled. Bush said the county may keep the property.

County Commissioner Mark Seabrook said he would also like to see a new youth shelter in Floyd County, but also said building or expanding the jail is also a priority.

“They are both on the to-do list, but funding is an issue,” he said.

Seabrook said he would be hesitant to see the county go in debt to build, or see a new tax placed on residents.

Keeping the road department functioning properly is also a priority. The state recently cut $1 million from the Floyd County Highway Department, which is nearly half of the yearly budget. The highway department is funded strictly by gasoline tax from cars — not trucks or SUVs. If people drive less, there is less revenue distributed by the state.

“All revenues are down,” Seabrook said. “They raise sales tax a penny which is suppose to generate a lot of income, but if people aren’t buying anything, it doesn’t generate anything.”



JAIL OVERCROWDING ISSUES

The Floyd County Jail was built for 130 inmates. A few years later, 100 extra beds were added, bringing the maximum number to 230. However, there are more than 300 inmates on average a day currently staying at a facility that was not built to handle fewer inmates.

“The infrastructure of the jail is not made for that number,” Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills said in a recent interview.

To make matters even more challenging, the jail budget has not expanded to meet the increase in inmates, so Mills has had to deal with finding the money to feed and provide medical care to an overflow of inmates. Too many inmates, not enough money.

“It just makes it really hard for the sheriff,” said County Council President Ted Heavrin, who is the Floyd County police chief. “It has been overcrowded for years. Something has got to be done.”

The county has been sued by inmates in the past for overcrowding and other issues and that trend will likely continue if the jail is not expanded, according to officials. They also fear the federal government could mandate a new jail be built.

“Some federal judge could tell us to build it, and we would have to,” Seabrook said.

DLZ Indiana, LLC., recently completed a study of the jail and provided recommendations. Part of the study estimates that by 2030, the Floyd County Jail average population will be 642 inmates. That is if crime projections follow current trends.

The jail is landlocked and would have to be expanded into Hauss Square or Scribner Drive, or the county could choose to build a new facility.

Bush has advocated finding a new location for the City-County Building, and make the current facility a judicial center. He said that would be a start. He said the jail could be used as a detention center if the county chooses to build a new one.

“We are going to have to deal with it. We have to keep planning,” Bush said. “We need to build a proper facility.”

All financial decisions have to be approved by the county council which is the financial branch of Floyd County. The commissioners are the legislative wing.



THIRD CAMM TRIAL

Thanks to a $700,000 welfare reimbursement from the state, the council decided to put that money aside for a third David Camm murder trial. Without that money, the county would be forced to slash budgets even more, according to Heavrin.

The trial is expected to begin this year, but a date and a location have not yet been decided.