County commissioners announce higher jail costs at contentious meeting

Owen County Commissioner Sam Hobbs reaffirmed his commitment to the community’s safety and jail project’s legality during a heated July 2 commissioners’ meeting.

The commissioners opened the floor for public discussion specifically relating to the jail project that Thursday night and announced that the land the county plans to purchase for the new jail construction is roughly $90,000 more expensive than originally believed.

A completed survey of the area between Walmart and the Owen County Family YMCA determined that the property is about an acre larger than initial agreements stated, bringing the property to 18.003 acres and $1,620,270.

Multiple attendees questioned how the property could justifiably cost $90,000 per acre, raising concerns about conflicts of interest in the property sale and asking why the county is moving toward building a jail in one of the most expensive parts of the county.

Former local business owner and county resident Denise Sudol encouraged the commissioners to take more time to consider the direction the county plans to go for the jail.

Currently, the Owen County Commissioners and Owen County Council plan to hold a joint work session at 6 p.m. July 27 to make a decision about moving forward with the project. The meeting was originally scheduled for 5 p.m. on July 13 but was rescheduled last week.

“I’m asking you to stop this right now and let’s get another month and get it right,” Sudol said, receiving applause from some meeting attendees.

Hobbs also clarified that the county had not yet made a decision regarding where on the property the jail will sit. Some suggestions have been made to construct the jail at the back, so the county can sell the property nearest to the road and be more likely to sell it due to the sewer lines that will already be in the area. Hobbs said the county will eventually seek community input to decide what to do with the excess property.

For the past two weeks, Hobbs said, he has been hearing that he is corrupt or crooked. He maintained that he and the rest of the commissioners are not in their positions to do anything illegally.

“I would never do anything up there to jeopardize the safety of this community,” Hobbs said. “I live here. I have for many, many years. I’ve served in this community for 16 years and will continue to serve to the best of my ability.”

No matter what, the decision made at the work session won’t satisfy everyone, he said.

Spencer Elementary School teacher Kevin Wright also made a comment and asked the community to consider the implications of further delaying progress with the jail and deciding not to buy the property.

The money spent on surveys, environmental studies and appraisals would be “down the toilet,” and the county would be forced to spend more time searching for another property, he said.

“We lose our momentum that we have with our current board of commissioners and our current council members who are ready to meet on the 13th and get this done after 14 years,” Wright said.

The need for a new jail was first discussed more than a decade ago, and each year construction is delayed racks up millions of dollars in rising costs and inflation. To avoid a lawsuit from inadequate conditions at the current jail and growing prices, county leadership has been pushing for planning decisions to be finalized.

With the added acreage costs, today the jail is expected to cost about $38 million. If the county fails to make progress, it could be mandated to build a jail, removing local say in the construction and planning, leaving the door open for even greater costs.

“The overall cost of what it’s costing us for the delay is insurmountable, $8,000 a day,” Hobbs said.

Township merger

At the meeting, commissioner Norman Warner discussed the state’s move toward combining townships that score four or more points on a state-issued performance evaluation. Public Law 134, signed by Gov. Mike Braun in March, requires local governments to compile data on each township and assess their performance by Dec. 31, 2026 and requires qualifying townships to merge by Jan. 1, 2029.

“We would like to get out in front of that instead of having the state tell us who that’s gonna be and where they’re gonna go,” Warner said.

He said the county government needs to plan meetings with the township trustees to begin those discussions.

Water protection ordinance

Plan commission member Alfio Saitta presented a draft of a water protection ordinance the plan commission began discussing in February.

The ordinance is aimed at filling a gap in county and state guidelines for water usage that falls between 10,000 and 100,000 gallons per day. The county has regulations for sources that draw less than 10,000 gallons and the state regulates high capacity wells with the capability of withdrawing greater than 100,000 gallons per day.

The plan would give the county more say over sources that would draw the amount of water in the gap and require them to produce things such as drainage plans and disclosing where the water will go.

Part of the ordinance includes suggesting creating a drainage board.

“We can’t control how much water they take out of the ground, but we have as a local entity, the law provides us the ability via a drainage board to have a say about what is happening once that water is taken out of the ground,” Saitta said. “The drainage board is a really critical vehicle to controlling that water usage.”

At the June 16 plan commission meeting, Saitta explained that the ordinance would consider projects such as data centers, but also reassess and reevaluate the county’s water resources and put “those in a relationship with community needs.”

Warner said there will have to be readings and public input on the ordinance but the county needs to get started on approving it and getting something in place.

The commissioners will meet again at 6 p.m. July 16 in the Commissioners’ Room on the second floor of the Owen County Courthouse, 60 S. Main St., Spencer.