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Lake City Inn may become the new site for Kosciusko County's work release program.
Thursday, County Administrator Ron Robinson asked the Kosciusko County Council to approve a resolution to hire two appraisers to estimate the value of the property. Current property owners want $2.5 million, Robinson said.
"We don't anticipate paying that much for it," he said.
The committee on the Justice Building expansion, while looking at cost figures, determined placing work release in the Justice Building will cost an estimated $120 to $130 per square foot. Buying Lake City Inn, Robinson said, will potentially save the county money, because the Lake City Inn property averages out to $89 per square foot.
During the jail expansion, the probation department and a few offices will be displaced. Robinson said if the county buys Lake City Inn, the probation department and offices can be temporarily housed there, too. The property will become the permanent home of the work release program.
Robinson said there are currently 36 inmates in work release and he expects that number to rise to about 60 in the coming year. A plus to the work release program, he said, is that it is the only county office that brings money back to the county.
In 1998, the county made almost $180,000 from the work release program. Lake City Inn has the potential to house 240 work release prisoners.
Kosciusko County is often approached by other counties who want to place some of their inmates in the Kosciusko County work release program. Robinson said work release supervisor Tom Kitch may pursue an ordinance to allow inmates outside the county to participate in Kosciusko County's work release program, but they would have to pay a per diem and part of their wage to do so.
The council was also presented with a letter by the county commissioners proposing the council approve the resolution for appraisers.
Council vice president Jim Tranter said he is in favor of the work release program because it brings money back to the county.
If the appraisers value the property at a figure the county can agree on, Robinson will present another resolution at a later meeting to actually buy the property.
Council voted 6 to 0 passing the resolution. Only council president Brad Tandy was absent from the meeting.
In other business, Kosciusko County Assessor Sharon Thompson asked the county council to appoint Susan Toumey, Bremen, to the Kosciusko County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals.
The board is a five-member board but only three positions are actually filled. Two of the five appeals board members must be level two assessors. Thompson is a level two assessor, but cannot count as one of the two on the board. The other two members are level one.
Also, board members cannot be county employees. All level two assessors in Kosciusko County are county employees.
Thompson said that with only three members, a minimum quorum, if one member must abstain, the board cannot take any action. A fourth member is needed.
Council members were concerned about hiring someone outside the county, but because of the lack of level two assessors in the county, the council unanimously approved the request.
Toumey will be paid $150 per meeting day. Thompson said the board expects to meet once a month.
The fifth position will be even harder to fill, Thompson said, because not only must the board member be level two, but also must be a property owner in Kosciusko County.
The Kosciusko County Soil and Water Conservation District's request for the county to pay half the cost of a new vehicle was denied. Councilman John Kinsey made a motion to pay half but the motion failed due to a lack of a second.
Tranter said SWCD may want to try to budget the cost for an older vehicle into next year's budget.
