Beyond the water tower off West Wheeling Street in Lancaster there’s a fence.
Beyond the fence there’s dirt.
Beyond the dirt there’s an idea that Councilman Randy Groff isn’t a fan of.
“I am standing at the site of the new Fairfield County Jail, which is currently under construction,” he said.
Groff says the $35 million jail is being built on an old city landfill and is threatening the water supply with arsenic, lead, magnesium and chromium.
“It is not the will of the people,” he said.
He says the people of Lancaster wanted the jail, but at the Liberty Center location about four miles from town.
Groff believes the wishes of the people of Lancaster were ignored. The Lancaster City Council voted on and approved a resolution opposing the downtown jail location in 2014. The resolution was vetoed by then mayor David Smith, according to Councilwoman Becky Tener.
The Fairfield County Commission voted and approved the downtown location in the Fall of 2015.
“Nobody wants it here,” Jeff Dowdy said. “It’s just not the place for it.”
“This is endangering the entire community,” Janet Muralt said.
“I have yet to hear what the incentive is for outweighing the danger to the water supply,” Ray Michalski said.
People say they fear possible water contamination and it’s more expensive at their expense by millions of dollars to put the jail downtown, as opposed to the site at Liberty Center.
“I just think that Liberty Center is a much safer and cheaper place for the community,” Kevin Cottrill said.
But the county says there’s nothing wrong with the location.
Fairfield County Commissioner Steve Davis says if there was a problem or potential problem, the commission would not have gone ahead with the plans for the new downtown jail. He says the site has been tested for chemicals and says there’s no validation of the public’s concerns. As a precaution, he says during the construction an environmentalist is on site to monitor levels. He also says the site will be safer once the new jail is up and running.
Davis says it was a “close call” to put the jail in downtown Lancaster, but says in the past the block was rundown with vacant businesses and believes the new jail will revitalize the downtown area.
He says the land at Liberty Center was purchased by the county about 20 years ago, but it was not specifically for the jail as many people might believe. He says the land was purchased for a complex to house all of county government. But, ultimately, he says the downtown location for the new jail was the best fit that made the most sense.
Davis says a number of public hearings and pollings were conducted prior to the final decision to gauge public opinion on the locations and says 67 percent of those polled were in favor of the downtown location.
One man at the site, Sunday, told 10TV that the downtown jail site is the “perfect strategic location” for the building because it would cost more to transport prisoners to and from the courthouse if the jail was in any other location.
Davis says the construction for the new jail is moving forward, it’s going well, it’s on time and under budget. He says the building should be complete in about a year-and-a-half.
