Pickens council OKs jail bond, Tri-County Tech money

PICKENS, S.C. -- The new Pickens County Council voted Monday to undo two notable stands by the previous council.

The new $23 million Pickens County Jail will be fully paid for with a bond issue, after the new council voted 5-1 to undo the previous council's plan to pay cash for much of the construction. The 300-plus bed facility is set to begin construction this summer. But the council will need to have three readings and a public hearing before the bond plan can be put into effect, according to Crystal Alexander, the Clerk to Council.

All of the new members elected last fall -- Roy Costner, Chris Bowers, Wes Hendricks and Carl Hudson -- and holdover Emsley Feemster have recently questioned why the county would tie up money needed for overhead and unexpected expenses when the jail could be paid for over several years without straining the county's finances.

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"I think it's a good idea. ... We need to have a good, strong fund balance," Hudson said Monday.

Trey Whitehurst, the only other holdover from the previous council, voted against the plan. Instead, he advocated using a bond for some of the jail's cost along with some of the available fund balance.

The council also voted 4-2 to give Tri-County Technical College the county's share of financing next year for the $42 million student center under construction on the Pendleton campus. Hudson joined Whitehurst against the plan. Feemster, who traditionally has abstained from such votes because he retired from the college, voted for the measure, which Hendricks, Bowers and Costner have all endorsed previously.

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