The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1316377
C-6 Wednesday, December 9, 2020 The Press-Dispatch EAST GIBSON Submit East Gibson news items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: egnews@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Council, commissioners approve jail site planning By Janice Barniak Gibson County Coun- cil and Commissioners ap- proved moving forward with work on the potential jail site, with the caveat they need to have an informal positive re- sponse that Princeton will consider rezoning the site at CR 150 and Old U.S. 41 to al- low for the jail. "So you have all the cats out of the bag," said Ameri- can Structurepoint engineer and president Willis "Rick" Conner. The work would include op- tioning the site so engineers can take soil borings, better analyze the flood plain and make a more detailed archi- tectural drawing, so they can approach the City of Prince- ton to officially rezone the 15.5 acres currently owned by Joseph Copper. The council is also getting the site appraised; Copper bought the land for $ 62,400 in 2010, according to Beacon Schneider records. He is ask- ing around $ 300,000 now. Plans for the jail range from $29.2 million to 41.8 mil- lion, depending on how many beds it will have and whether the Sheriff's Office and Com- munity Corrections facilities can be attached. Right now all three are in the same building, the pre- ferred solution for Sheriff Tim Bottoms. "I hate the fact we can't ex- pand the existing jail," said Conner, when talking about possibilities to expand the new jail in the future. "There isn't a whole lot that goes out of style in a jail." Expansion of the current jail is difficult because with its tight downtown footprint, it cannot expand out, only up. The current jail is also the subject of lawsuits due to its small size and lack of ADA ac- cessibility. The new jail would in- clude dorms for compliant prisoners, the cheaper form of housing them, a dual en- trance, video and in-person visitation, booking, holding cells, video arraignment fa- cilities, staff showers, inter- view rooms and evidence storage. The medical, kitch- en and administration part would be sized for 288 prison- ers, because that is the num- ber Gibson County is expect- ed to house in 20 years, and those facilities are less easy to expand. Conner expects construc- tion to start Sept. 1, 2021, and the facility completed Janu- ary 2023. Total design cost is $2.507 million, $2.7 with specialty services. "There are no cookie-cut- ter designs," Conner said of the jail. He said many people are saying they can do the jail for less, but they don't know needs locally and those de- signs aren't all-inclusive. Conner said Indiana jail markets are dominated by firms that are close to sup- pliers who specify certain brands of equipment that drive up the price. "If we can't get it rezoned, it doesn't matter. I mean you can plan to put a jail in space but that's not going to happen either," joked council mem- ber Derek McGraw. "We're planning a wedding without a bride right now." Conner still advocated the 288 -bed jail, though he said he understood the council can better afford the small- er jail, because he said the 288 -bed jail would serve the county's needs the entire 20 years of the payments. He said Vanderburgh County built a jail too small for their needs, and by the time they opened it, it was overcrowded the day it opened. He said if the county charges other counties to host their out-of-town pris- oners to fill the extra beds, Gibson County could use the profit to pay off the big- ger jail. Council members said the estimated $ 37 per day coun- ties charge to take on extra prisoners may cover food costs, for example, but is un- der the total costs once you divide out extra guards and facility-related costs. Councilman Jay Riley was against using that as a way to pay back a bigger jail be- cause he said it speculated on future prisoners they don't know they'll have. He said many counties are in the same position as Gib- son County, where they're building new jails because of overcrowding; in five years, when everyone has new jails, they don't know anyone will have extra prisoners they want to house elsewhere. Commissioner-elect War- ren Fleetwood said the pro- cess reminded him of shop- ping for cars with his dad, when he was a teenager that wanted more than they could afford. "Those were painful days. These are painful days, too, coming to terms." The court hasn't specified a size for the jail, only that it needs to be safe, Conner said. "Rezoning doesn't cost anything," McGraw said, call- ing it what the council needs to address first. This map of the new jail layout shows how it would fit on the Joseph Copper prop- erty in Princeton. Below, the council has several options of varying price points to fit the jail, Gibson County Sheriff's Office and Community Corrections on one foot- print. Images courtesy American Structurepoint. County tourism office releases stay-home calendar of activities You can stay home for the holidays and still get in the Christmas spirit with sever- al holiday activities planned for Gibson County that are safe, fun and affordable. The Gibson County Visitors and Tourism Bureau announces its Stay Home for the Holi- days Calendar of Activities: Follow the Gibson Coun- ty Visitors and Tourism Bu- reau on Facebook for live vid- eos of holiday light displays, including the lighting of the picturesque Gibson County Courthouse. • The kids can mail their Christmas letters to Santa at the Princeton Train Depot, 702 West Broadway, Prince- ton. Letters must be depos- ited in "Santa's Mailbox" no later than Dec. 15 in order to get a reply from St. Nick himself. • The 2020 Holiday Home Decorating Contest will of- fer cash prizes to the bright- est and best holiday displays throughout the county. The deadline to register your display is Dec. 8. Visit www. gibsoncountyin.org for entry forms and contest rules. • Join in the fun of the "Christmas Cruise" on Sat- urday, Dec. 12, from 5 -7 p.m. Decorate your vehicle with Christmas lights and cruise the county, checking out the holiday light displays and spreading Christmas cheer along your way. While you're out, be sure to check out each of the entries in the Hol- iday Home Decorating Con- test. The addresses of partic- ipating entrants from across the county will be posted. La- fayette Park in Princeton will introduce its new Tunnel of Lights and word on the street is that Santa will be out and about that evening, so keep your eyes peeled. • Gather the family around on Christmas Eve for a special Facebook Live presentation of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," presented by the Broadway Players. Follow the Gibson County Visitors and Tourism Bureau on Facebook or visit www.gibsoncountyin.org for event details. For more information on these and other Gibson County events and activities, contact the Gibson County Visitors and Tourism Bureau at 812-385 -0999 or by email at info@gibsoncountyin.org. OCU professors lauded with PALSave Open Educator Award Two of seven professors named for the Private Aca- demic Library Network of Indiana "PAL Save Open Ed- ucator Award" for the 2019 - 2020 academic year are from Oakland City University. Paul Bowdre, PhD was recognized for his Criminal Justice Capstone Seminar and former professor Barn- abas Otoo, PhD was recog- nized in his General Chem- istry 1 Class. Oakland City University is proud of these professors who continue to work hard to give each student the best ed- ucation. The Open Educator Award recognizes innovation and excellence in support of text- book affordability and stu- dent success. The inaugural awardees were all pilot participants in the PAL Save Course Rede- sign Grants, and embody the spirit of the PAL Save project by being the first to redesign their courses using zero-cost course material and provid- ing feedback to shape the program. State to send ISP excise for COVID-related enforcement By Janice Barniak As Gibson County hovered just under a "red" COVID designation Tuesday, Health Dept. Director Diane Horn- by told commissioners the state would be sending Indi- ana State Excise Police and the fire marshal for enforce- ment of COVID rules. "Just to update you on our numbers, November has been a horrible month related to COVID cases," she told them, explaining that, not count- ing the last day of the month, since it was only Dec. 1 and she didn't have that number, there had been 1,031 cases before the last day of month, up from 463 cases in October, for an average of about 35 new cases per day. There were 16 deaths in November, out of the 30 total deaths since the pan- demic began. "It is terrible. So anything the community can do as a whole to be proactive with the mask wearing...We're real- ly at a critical point in this. Our hospitals are getting overload- ed. We're seeing a lot of sick people in the community." One issue is that people are misunderstanding their need to quarantine. People are test- ing because they've been ex- posed, but not quarantining as they wait for results. "Then when the result shows up positive, we have numerous contacts to that per- son," she said. If a person just getting test- ed because work requires it each week, they don't need to quarantine, but if they're test- ed because of contact or be- cause of symptoms, then they need to stay home, Hornby said. The positive test day is day 0 and then the person has to stay home 10 days after that. A person who has close con- tact to a positive case has to quarantine 14 days regardless of a test, because it can take that long from the point of con- tact to develop enough to test positive. "We're seeing tons and tons of families where the whole family's getting it. Once it's in the home, it spreads like fire...If you wait until you're symptomatic, you probably already spread it to cowork- ers," she said. If the infected person has not been isolated in one bed- room and bathroom away from other members of the house- hold, the whole family has to quarantine, and the contacts to the infected person need to quarantine 14 days past when the positive case was conta- gious, so that is a total of 24 days. (Ten days of the origi- nal carrier being contagious, then 14 days for the person to allow the potential to develop the virus). She said that includes hav- ing dinner together in the 48 hours before symptoms devel- oped or watching T V in the same room. The health department will provide a letter for an employ- er that shows how long the em- ployee must quarantine, she said. She said the virus has stressed businesses and day- care facilities. "If you live in same house, it counts as exposure," she said. The only case when it might not be is if people live on different floors of the same house, for example, and don't see one another or share meals or a bathroom. While Hornby expected the county to tick into red last week, Gibson is still hovering just outside, and residents can be proactive to make a differ- ence so that the county won't see further restrictions. "Any kind of — we don't want public Santas. If we have a Santa, he has to be separat- ed from the kids. Events can- not have more than 50 people," she said in an example. There have been four deaths since Hornby spoke Tuesday, the county has had 2,358 cases total. Girl Scouts 'Stomping out Hunger' From left to right: Averi Fryxell, Layla Norrick, Nikki Thacker, Misty Burns, Grace Jones, Abigaile Burns and Electra Thacker collect donations for a canned food drive at Wirth Park on Saturday. Their goal is to feed 20 lo- cal families by donating the food to the Trinity United Methodist Sanctuary in Oakland City. The group consist- ed of Girl Scout troops 258 and 290. They had cookies and hard rock candy for donors.