Kewaunee County residents will get an update on the months of work that have already gone into planning a new public safety building next month. The meeting will present the findings from its consultant that has gone through the current jail facility, which during its time has also housed the communications center and Sheriff’s Department offices. Kewaunee County Sheriff Matt Joski says giving tours of the current facilities have been eye-opening for those willing to take him up on the offer.
Joski says you can contact the Sheriff’s Department to schedule a tour of the jail facility to learn more about the building’s deficiencies or mark April 8th at 5 p.m. on your calendar to attend the first planning meeting update at the Kewaunee County Administration Center. You can learn more about the meeting online with this story.
FROM SHERIFF JOSKI
In a continued effort to keep our community informed as to the progress of the planning related to our Safety Building facility, I would like to provide as much of an update as I can. I say as much as I can as we are awaiting the first phase report out from our consultant which will be provided on Monday April 8th at 5:00 PM. This meeting will be at the Human Services Building in their large training room. If you are not able to attend, no problem, it’s not that big of a room. I will make sure that we provide a prompt report to everyone in as many sources and outlets as we can.
The reason I use the title of the Safety Building Facility, is that we need to take into consideration all of the operations that are currently housed at the Safety Building which includes not only the Jail, but our Communications Center as well. Also, back in 1969 all of the Sheriff’s Department operations were contained in that building. Over the years we have grown, and as a result have had to develop options for much of our operational needs through use of various buildings. While we will make every effort to minimize the scope of this project to address our absolute needs, we also don’t want to overlook anything. I like the old saying “Measure Twice, Cut once” as a guide to an accurate planning and implementation process.
One thing I can report on is that we recently held our second planning meeting at which time the Committee toured our current facility. I think it was an eye opening experience for all who participated and provided an excellent backdrop to our need for urgency in remedying what has been and continues to be a great deficiency in both the housing of inmates as well as working conditions for our staff. While I do not feel comfortable articulating the various security deficiencies publicly, it is safe to say that there significant challenges we face as we not only care for and provide adequate housing to those remanded to our care, but also challenges in maintaining a safe environment for those men and women of the Sheriff’s Department who work every day in that facility.
Just today I did a walk through with the Jail Lieutenant who has had to deploy the seasonal rain buckets in various areas of the jail to catch the water coming in through the roof. While it would be easy to say let’s just fix the roof, any money spent on that building would not be a wise investment of public resources, as the structural degradation is just one of many deficiencies. We can be proud of the service we received from that structure, but it is in fact time to turn the page. As I have in the past, I will offer my services to provide a tour of our current facility to anyone who is interested. Please feel free to call me at (920)388-7177.
