Hayes disputes claims made in published letter

DOUBLE SPRINGS       -  The Winston County Commission has responded to a letter to the editor published recently in the Alabamian, noting that costs related to the county judicial/jail facility have put a “hole in the road repair and maintenance bucket.”
The letter, written by John Steven Wright of Arley and addressed to Governor Kay Ivey, as well as state senators and representatives, noted the county jail had been forced upon the county with no provision for funding.
“The debt service of this facility is 100 percent paid out of the budget for roads and bridges,” Wright submitted in his letter.
Wright then provided a breakdown of figures related to costs of the judicial jail facility, terming the issue as, “a disaster we are currently in, facing for the near future and what we will be enduring for the next 30 years, until the jail debt is paid off.”
The letter listed Winston County’s road budget (machinery, labor and material) at $500,000, with debt service on the jail at $250,000.
Based on this budget, Wright believes that funds available to maintain roads for the entire county annually equals $250,000 or $125,000 for each district.  This amounts to  $10,417 for each district per month, according to Wright’s calculations.
“Clearly, it is self-evident that no entity can maintain the covered roads with this funding,” Wright submitted in his letter. “The county, or should I say its residents, have been eating this shortfall for years.
“Because of past deficiencies, funds for road repair would help with the immediate need, but in no way solve the problem,” Wright continued. “Road maintenance is an ongoing necessity, so funds for regular and continued maintenance must be available.”
Wright continued that the only way funds for regular and continued maintenance on the road will become available is by retiring the jail debt which, he claimed, would double the funds available for road maintenance.
Winston County Commission Chairman Roger Hayes spoke out at the Tuesday, April 25, commission meeting concerning Wright’s letter.
Hayes explained the judicial jail facility is paid through four different funds.
One of the funding sources in Wright’s letter listed $250,000 coming out of the road and bridge fund, according to Hayes.
“That is not true,” Hayes said.
The accounts that fund the judicial jail building include road and bridge funding, which pays $100,000; judicial court costs, which pay $100,000; capital improvement, which provides $100,000 and $85,000 coming from the general fund, Hayes explained at the meeting.
The total payment the county makes annually toward the judicial jail facility is around $385,000, according to Hayes. Payoff of the note for the facility is in 2037, he added.
“Here’s what the killer is,” Hayes noted. “To operate that jail and courthouse is close to $1 million a year.
“That’s what people don’t realize in our county,” Hayes continued. “People don’t understand how much crime costs every county in the United States.”