Kennebec Valley Podium

Questions raised about jail addition
BY DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer Morning Sentinel

MADISON -- Town Manager Norman Dean said Wednesday that he sees more unanswered questions than details on a plan for a proposed training and classroom facility at the new Somerset County Jail.

A sketch and preliminary plan under Madison's Site Review Ordinance is to be on the agenda tonight for a meeting of the Madison Planning Board.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building on Weston Avenue.

Dean said he wonders why the 40-by-50-square foot building is being built and who is going to pay for it.

"The question I had is what is it going to be used for, what's the purpose of it and where's the money going to come from," Dean said.

The 92,000-square-foot, 200-bed correctional facility is being constructed on about 100 acres of land on East Madison Road. Voters approved a $30 million bond to pay for it, but the final construction bid came in at around $26 million, leaving about $4 million that will go into an escrow account until the bond matures.

Philip Roy, chairman of the Somerset County Commissioners, said the building costs will be absorbed from a contingency fund that is already in place and that a training center will benefit the county.

"The contingency account with Sheridan Corp. is already in the construction bid process, so the actual cost of Sheridan's contract is not going to go up," Roy said. "It's a great deal for the county and as an addition to the jail for anything from GEDs to college courses for inmates. There are countless things it could be used for."

The administrative portion of the jail will be ready for the sheriff to move into this summer. Inmates will begin transferring from the old jail soon after that.

The total cost of the training and classroom project is $80,000 and would be situated at the rear of the jail site, some 100 feet from the main building. It would include a classroom building, a training building shell, an open training area and parking spaces, according to the summary of the plan by architects SMRT Inc., of Portland.

The classroom will be used by Somerset County for inmate certification and training and employee training programs related to emergency management and responses and law enforcement.

But Dean said he hopes the $80,000 is not being spent just because it is available with the $4 million left from the bond.

"We've got a $25 million jail -- I suppose that they had planned on training within the jail -- I don't expect they're going to transport prisoners down there or anything of that sort," Dean said. "Is it right to use money that was appropriated for the jail to be used for emergency services? That's the question I have."

Plus, Dean said, the $80,000 price tag on the new building surely will go up significantly before the work is done.

"I don't think it's right that the commissioners are able to say 'Oh, by the way, let's build this little building,'" Dean said. "Maybe Phil Roy thinks it's no big deal, but I think it's a big deal to build a building that the people in Somerset County had no say in building.

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