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locations to house the overflow. He offered four options; the first and least desirable option: <br />Osceola County could take 20 trustee-type sentenced prisoners at $115 per month each; we would <br />still have to pay their medical and other costs. The second option that has already been initiated is <br />to house them in tents but there are various liabilities especially in the summer. A third option <br />would be rental space and the one available building large enough is the old Wal-Mart in Sebastian <br />but it sustained major damage during the hurricanes and the owner is not willing to repair it for a <br />14-16 month lease. They found nothing in a search for a building in north St. Lucie and south <br />Brevard Counties. The best and last option would be the Hobart Park Fairgrounds building. It fits <br />the needs, is named as an emergency jail alternative in the Comprehensive Plan, is the most likely <br />site, and he would make that his recommendation. He then spoke about staffing issues and costs. <br />He specified that he had programmed into his next fiscal year’s budget the addition of more <br />correctional officers and asked to have the first quarter’s FY 2005/06 addition activated early. He <br />gave many assurances that the inmates who would be transferred to the Fairgrounds building <br />would be low security, trustee-type individuals who would not be any threat to children or the <br />public. It will take 3 additional officers per shift if they use the tents and the same number if <br />Hobart Park is used. <br />Sheriff Raymond addressed questions about capacity housing numbers, staffing, <br />previous projections on jail census, the Carter Goble & Lee study, shift coverage, and others. He <br />noted they are ready to move immediately. Sheriff Raymond also advised of the difficulties of <br />hiring correctional officers; he has only 2 applications on file now. The rest would have to be <br />recruited and they would be phased in as we can get them so it would not be an immediate impact <br />on the budget. <br />From the Sheriff’s information, County Administrator Baird recognized that in spite <br />of the now-in-progress addition to the jail, we more jail space sooner than projected. He <br />understood that Sheriff Raymond was asking for money now and specified that the Contingency <br />Fund is down to approximately $400,000 and funding this necessity would reduce it to about <br />$80,000. <br />May 3, 2005 13 <br /> <br />