At right, the main entrance of the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton is being remodeled as part of a roughly $10 million jail expansion project. A new 212-bed jail pod is in the background at left.
Information from WYSH Radio
Anderson County Commissioner Dusty Irwin has proposed placing a non-binding referendum on the August ballot asking voters whether or not they want the county to house what have been described as low-risk state and federal prisoners awaiting trial in the soon-to-be-expanded county jail.
The proposal will be considered Thursday by the Anderson County Commission’s Legislative Committee and could be considered by the full Commission later this month.
Supporters of housing state and federal inmates say that doing so will provide a new revenue stream to help pay for and staff the 212-bed expansion of the jail slated to open early this year. Opponents say the county does not need to be in the business of housing federal inmates.
Proposed is a private act that, if approved by the Tennessee General Assembly, will allow the county to hold the non-binding referendum in August, when voter turnout is expected to be high with a slew of local offices on the ballot.
Information in this story brought to you through an agreement between Oak Ridge Today and WYSH. See more local news headlines on the WYSH website at http://www.wyshradio.com/local_news.html.
Charlie Jernigan says
Is this the beginning of a trend? Where every issue is taken to a non-binding referendum?
If our elected representatives cannot come to a conclusion about how to vote, perhaps they should resign and get out of the way.
Sam Hopwood says
Absolutely correct. This kind of foolishness needs to be “nipped in the bud”. The very idea of asking the voters their wishes. Madness….. 🙂
Tim Jones says
We elect people to represent us, not to shirk their responsibilities and waste time and taxes holding endless “nonbinding referendums”.
Rob Woodward says
Translation:
We know people won’t vote federal inmates
Sam Hopwood says
Well, let’s see now. The only referendums in Andersonj County that I can recall were two that were held in Oak Ridge in past years and in both of them the voters overwhelmimgly rejected our elected representatives intentions. Why are you and Charlie afraid of listening to the voters??
The Feds should bed their criminals and Anderson County should bed our criminals. ,Simple as that.
Sam Jones says
Why? Because the results of the two votes that you speak of as examples undoubtably damaged the economy of the city, missing an opportunity to revitalize the mall property without letting it decay for a decade and the possible opportunity to have a Target store. The “people” were wrong on both of those votes.
Sam Hopwood says
No Sam, the “people” were right. Both the Great Mall Robbery and the Crestpointe Caper were giant ripoffs of the OR taxpayers.. Fortunately, the informed voters were not misled by the “pie in the sky” developers. OR dodged two bullets there.
Ben Ryan says
You have your opinion, but the reality is that the mall property has remained a decaying disaster and there is no Target because the city was blocked in taking steps to encourage development. My bet is that you would have been against the Kroger development, as well as the mall TIF. You need to stop living in 1955.
Sam Hopwood says
Your bet would be wrong Ben. The Kroger development is classic capitalism at work. They did it on their own, no taxpayer subsidies, no TIF, just Kroger investment, the way this country was founded. KUDOS to Kroger. And Target?? There was no Target, just a weak attempt at trying to snow the OR taxpayers. Fortunately, there were enough astute voters to see through that scam. And BTW, 1955 was not a bad year. Fleecing of the citizens had not become a common everyday event and people still lived within their means, not expecting government to spoon feed them. Maybe the “good ole days” really were the “good ole days.”
My rant for the day…. Have a GOOD one… 🙂
Charlie Jernigan says
Actually, I would be happy if Anderson County would just pay for the cost of bedding our criminals.
The Federal proposal is to take advantage of the higher reimbursement from the Federal programs to house low-risk prisoners close to their homes.
If the county would just vote to pay for operating our jail we could ignore this on-going quest to avoiding paying for needed services in Anderson County. Are you on-board for that?? I bet the referendum proposers are not…
Sam Hopwood says
I am on board for paying to house Anderson County’s criminals and no one else’s criminals. We’ll see how it all plays out..
Rob Woodward says
I thought Myron Iwanski said we would be housing immigration violators?
I would think Texas might be closer to home.