Letter: New jail? A mistake almost made

From: Gary Ballard
Glencoe
“Empty cells means counties go begging” and “Poor planning led to county jail boom” are two most interesting articles (a must read) in the Dec. 20 and 26, 2009 Minneapolis Star Tribune, which goes in depth (nearly a full page) on the cost to counties for unneeded jail building projects, resulting in extra cost to county taxpayers.
If only these articles and studies would have been done a couple years ago, perhaps, it would have saved months of tireless effort for me and others. At the time, many people just “didn’t get it” – such as the county commissioners, city councils, jail task force, and others, you know who you are, who wanted this $22 million (originally $25 million) jail project.
Based on my economic background, common sense, and in-depth studying, I felt I knew this project was a bad and costly mistake.
This project was being forced upon us (no public vote) with a huge tax burden. Now, even without a jail being built, it left over a million dollars cost to us county taxpayers.
The public has never received an acknowledgment of these misguided efforts by the proponents.
It would be nice to hear an admittance “we made a mistake” or that an “apology” is owed to the county taxpayers. What can we expect?