The $35 million Essex County Jail and Public Safety Building houses the county’s jail, 911 center and other public safety services including the sheriff and state police. Now, a committee of the county Board of Supervisors has approved $63,000 to repair a problem that has been plaguing the facility since it opened less than 9 years ago.
In 2003 the New York State Commission on Corrections ordered Essex County to build a new jail because the 150-year-old facility had failed inspections. The new building, which combined a jail with public safety operations, opened in October 2007.
Since then, according to Essex County Board of Supervisors Ways and Means Committee Chair Randy Preston, the backup generator has consistently failed to operate properly during a power failure. “This is the entire public safety building we’re talking about, which is a very large facility. There’s been a problem continuously since the jail has been constructed. But the people that constructed the jail and were paid to oversee the construction of the jail are long gone. It has never worked right. And even though I’m probably one of the most fiscally conservative members of that board, you just can’t have a jail that goes dark. That is an extreme safety situation and there’s no way we can continue to ignore that.”
The Plattsburgh Press Republican reported Thursday that technicians have determined the problem is a relay circuit that can be fixed – at a cost of $63,075.
Finance Committee Chair Tom Scozzafava says the board has been seeking a solution since the jail opened. He reports that there is money available for the fix. “There’s monies that have been left over from when we originally built the jail that wasn’t expended, for whatever reasons, and that’s where it’ll come from. But the money won’t have any impact whatsoever on this year’s budget or next year’s budget. But it’s in that capital project account.”
Preston notes that there are manual backups for all systems but there are still safety concerns. “The problem is you have a hundred inmates and probably a handful of officers and a facility and if it happens at night and it goes dark with the exception of a few of the battery backup emergency lights and it’s just an extremely dangerous situation. I mean it never, never should have gotten this far. I mean it’s somewhat hilarious but it’s really not that the 911 center in the public safety building they actually have got a backup generator for the backup generator because of this problem.”
Various technicians have looked at the generator over the years. Preston says that has resulted in mixed advice for the Board of Supervisors. “We’ve had the generator people. They feel the generator is working correctly. The problem is it’s something that’s happening when the generator swaps over. The power company has been involved. This thing exercises once a week and when it does it does so flawlessly. But when there’s an actual load and it needs to switch it does not switch. And this has gone on way too long.”
Again, Scozzafava: “We have met with the equipment manufacturer. We’ve met with NYSEG. We’ve run trial tests. We’ve logged the whole operation of that generator on computer. We’ve done our due diligence trying to resolve this problem without having to go to a major expenditure like we’re being forced into right now.”
The full Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to approve the expenditure at their next meeting Monday morning.
