It was tucked away – the last item on the work session agenda at last night’s Beloit City Council meeting. The topic – the reality that the former Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility now belonged to the City of Beloit.
In the end, the City Council agreed to schedule a special meeting to discuss the new acquisition courtesy of Governor Mark Parkinson’s signature on Senate Bill 357 Monday. That special meeting will be held next week Monday, March 8th and it is anticipated most of it will be conducted in closed session.
At last night’s meeting Beloit Police Chief Ryan Stocker did broach the subject of law enforcement use of the facility. Members of the Beloit PD and Mitchell County Sheriff’s Department recently toured Morningside – the secure facility on the campus with an eye toward making it the new law enforcement center.
Stocker reported the building’s available space would take care of the overcrowding problem that plagues the current facility. He also said any idea of making the new facility a profitable venture by housing prisoners from other counties just doesn’t add up when you crunch the numbers.
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At the end of the discussion of the correctional facility acquisition – Council Member Bill Foreman took the opportunity to remind the Council that lots of people lost their jobs when the facility closed and that expansion of the tax base should be the prime objective when deciding the fate of the facility.
The work session also afforded the Council the opportunity to get an update from Swab-Eaton Engineer Stuart Porter concerning a proposed raw water transmission line from Glen Elder Dam to Beloit. The estimated cost of the water line, a little over $2-million.
The work session opened with a discussion of methodology to deal with a pine wilt problem in Beloit. Jim Strine, District Forester for the Kansas Forest Service out of Hays explained the cause of the disease and its deadly impact on pine trees not native to the United States.
Strine said the City’s proposed Pine Wilt Management Program and a proposed ordinance to enforce it will not get rid of the problem, just control it.
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And finally, in the short formal session at last night’s meeting, the Council OKed the purchase of fuel nozzle tips for the electric plant. The cost, just over $6,000.
