Starke County Council Approves 0.65 Tax Rate For Jail Project

David Pearman
The Starke County Council met with the county commissioners last night to discuss the proposed jail project, particularly the 0.65 percent tax rate that would help fund the construction of a new jail facility.

Council President David Pearman says the motion passed 5–1, and they will now be able to move on to the next step in the process.

“We’re going to have to start looking again at our metrics and some of the things that we’ve developed and primarily now we’ll be able to start looking at site acquisition. There’s been a lot of questions from the public where we would locate the jail and things like that, so now we’ll move into that phase of the next step of the process,” said Pearman.

The county commissioners approved a request for authorization for the Skillman Corporation to proceed with the design schematics for the proposed jail. The corporation will return in mid-October to present schematic estimates, and they are hopeful to begin construction in April.

The contracts for the schematics and other aspects of the project will be reviewed at the next meeting.