Inmates in the Yadkin County Jail will soon have hot water and toilets that work, though officials are still debating proposals to build a new jail.
Yadkin County commissioners voted unanimously yesterday to accept an $80,440 bid by Sylvester & Cockrum Inc., a mechanical contractor in Winston-Salem, to fix plumbing at the aging jail in downtown Yadkinville.
The work may take four to six months, but county officials say they hope that it will result in the jail re-opening.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services shut down most of the jail Aug. 27 after inspectors repeatedly expressed concerns with the jail's plumbing, including a lack of hot water in some areas and broken toilets.
Since then, the county has had to move its inmates -- about 55 a day -- to other counties, including Forsyth. That's costing roughly $2,500 a day, Maj. Danny Widener said. One or two inmates remain, Widener said, "as we book in and out."
Still, the improvements won't fix all the jail's woes. Inspectors have pointed other problems, including ones related to fire safety.
"We're patch-working at best," Sheriff Michael Cain said. "We're going to be running into pitfalls.
"I've got to have something," he added later. "I've got to stop the bleeding."
Fixing the plumbing was the easy part. The commissioners spent the bulk of a regularly scheduled meeting discussing what to do about the proposal for a new jail, ultimately voting to form a five-member committee that will look at alternatives to building a new county jail on Hoots Road.
In the meantime, Chad Wagoner, the chairman of the board, told commissioners that he wants the county to push ahead with plans for that location. "Don't drop the apple that we already have in our hand to reach for one that is a little bit redder and juicer, potentially," he said.
Commissioners have fought over the jail issue for years, even though they have been ordered by a Superior Court judge to resolve the issue, and financing, construction costs and land are all in place.
Part of the contention stems from a lawsuit filed against the county by a group of people opposed to the Hoots Road location. In July, a trial-court judge ruled in favor of the county but the case is expected to work itself way through the N.C. Court of Appeals.
Members of the jail committee will be Commissioners Brady Wooten and David Moxley, Cain and two contractors who have yet to be appointed. They will be considered by commissioners at their meeting Sept. 21.
Among their options may be one that Wooten suggested yesterday -- a modular detention center, the jail equivalent of a pre-manufactured-home.
"This is only a preliminary discussion," he said. "We need to focus on what we can agree on. We know what we have been doing for the last three years hasn't been working."
Lt. Tom Helms expressed doubts that such a structure would last more than seven years.
Regardless, it moves the jail discussion in a different direction.
"Thank you, gentlemen," Wagoner said, concluding the meeting. "We've made one step."
■ Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or at lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com.
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