Grundy County, Tenn., officials are weighing solutions for repairing or replacing the 1973-era jail in Altamont, Tenn.
Inmate transport route
Grundy County Mayor Lonnie CleekGrundy County Mayor Lonnie Cleek says there are few options but to go with a $37-per-day, per-inmate contract with Carroll County to house a half-dozen or more of Grundy’s female prisoners while county officials work to build a new jail.
Even at 208 miles away, Carroll County was the closest jail that could house Grundy’s female prisoners, said Cleek, once the chief deputy at the sheriff’s department.
Last month, the Grundy County Commission informally settled on a $4.98 million jail design and now is studying funding sources, which include loans and a possible increase in property taxes or a new wheel tax, Cleek said.
He said officials can’t put figures to those ideas because the county will go through a property reappraisal this year and they won’t know what the impact will be until that process is complete.
Cleek favors a wheel tax over a property tax increase, because it’s applied to all vehicle owners and not just property owners.