By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
Several Cabot officials were in Lonoke Thursday evening to hear a committee of Lonoke County Quorum Court members discuss again how the county will pay to run the new jail when it opens this summer.
State Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, the former Cabot mayor, had talked to county officials last year about leasing space in the new jail and closing the city jail. But by the time Bill Cypert was sworn in as Cabot mayor in January, the attitude about who should have access to the $6.2 million facility appeared to have changed, and Cypert said until the county knew what it wanted, Cabot’s jail would remain open.
The new jail will have 140 beds, at least 40 to 50 more than needed at this time for Lonoke County prisoners alone, and the questions still to be answered are who gets the other beds, how much will they pay and will they pay even on days they don’t need the beds?
Despite the earlier concerns, the consensus of the committee, said JP Tim Lemons, the committee chairman, is that the jail is for the use of the cities as well as the county. The cities should be able to close their lockups except as temporary holding cells, he said.
The members of the committee also decided that they don’t like the term “regional jail,” which had been used when referring to the cities having full use of the county jail.
Lemons said “regional” was a concept with no clear boundaries. County jail is more precise.
“The consensus is this jail was built for the people in the cities and the people in the county,” he said.
But the devil is in the details, and whether the cities will actually have full access to the new jail would likely depend on whether they will sign contracts to ensure that the county receives enough funds to pay the increased cost of running the new facility. Currently the county has $900,000 to run the jail, but the estimated cost is $1.3 million.
Money to build the jail came from a one-cent, county-wide sales tax that was collected for one year only. About one-third came from Cabot, and officials don’t mind saying that contribution has earned them some consideration.
Cypert, along with Eddie Cook, Cypert’s operations director, and Aldermen Rick Prentice, Ed Long and Patrick Hutton attended the Thursday meeting. Lemons said he was glad they did because it showed the city’s interest.
Cabot still wants to close its lockup except as a temporary holding cell.
Lemons said if everyone can agree on a contract for use of the county jail, he believes it will happen. But he said the county will need the cities to contract to pay for a set number of beds that will be paid for even when they are empty. If an agreement can be reached with Cabot, then the county will likely go to the other cities with the same plan, he said.
The county would still likely rent bed space to the state if the beds are available, he added. But for now, nothing is definite and likely won’t be until the April quorum court meeting, when the committee will present a proposal to the full quorum court.
