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Greene County Jail Closer Than Ever To Being Built

Republican New York State Senator George Amedore
WAMC photo by Dave Lucas
"A statewide bill has passed in the Senate numerous times in the past, which I have supported and it has always been held up in the New York State Assembly." ~ Republican state Senator George Amedore

Time appears to be running out for some residents in Greene County, New York who had hoped to stop construction of a new jail.

The Greene County Legislature on Wednesday night gave the green light for a new jail to be built in Coxsackie. Legislature Chair Patrick Linger is a Republican:   "As of Wednesday night we held a special meeting to get back responses that we had requested form state leadership, the Assembly, the Senate, the governor's office. We did not receive anything back in writing as to whether there was gonna be any legislation pushed through those bodies to allow shared or regional jails. And as a result of that the legislature decided that we would move forward with the resolutions that we've already passed which include the bonding as well as the bid award from the competitive bids that came in that we've already approved. So right now we are gonna move forward on those two resolutions."

Republican state Senator George Amedore of the 46th district represents Greene County:  "In my office, we have a policy of responding to home rule and that's what I have done throughout the entire process here. We never received a request from Greene County Legislature to carry this bill. They reached out to the governor's office and the legislative leaders to weigh in on this issue. And to my knowledge they didn't get even a response nor did I. A statewide bill has passed in the Senate numerous times in the past, which I have supported and it has always been held up in the New York State Assembly."

A bill introduced by Brooklyn Democratic Assemblyman Joseph Lentol intending to clarify the state's position on shared jails is moving through committees so slowly that groundbreaking for the jail is now almost a given.

Activists fear when construction begins costs will rise. Wayne Sheridan heads the Greene County Taxpayers Association.  "Some people say it could be as much as $90 million, which is the biggest capital expense ever in Greene County, and it will raise taxes again, people we trust say 15 to 20 percent each year for the next 30 years."

Linger says Wednesday's vote shows that not all taxpayers are on the same page as Sheridan and his group. "The majority voted to continue on with what we'd already approved. There was actually no dissenting opinion as far as moving forward with what we approved."

Linger says final written permits are expected soon from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.   "What we approved was a $39 million bond resolution plus an $8 million cash influx to come up with the total of the $47.1 million low competitive bid that we awarded. Those awards I believe were going to reduce once again our bedcount, we do hope to have somewhat of a reduction of $3 to $3.5 million from what was approved. And I believe our pre-construction meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday with the contractors. We'll go from there. We're still waiting on a couple of permits that we've been told are ready to be issued, but I don't have them in hand yet."

The state legislative session ends June 19th.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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