MARION, SC (WBTW) – The Marion County Capital Project Sales Tax Commission hosted a meeting with the public on Tuesday to discuss possible future projects.
Chairman of the Capital Sales Tax Commission, Byron Beck, told News13 the county needs both a new 911 tower, and upgrades to the detention center.
“There’s a Phase One of the Detention Center,” Beck explained. “We’re doing a $2.5 million project for them, and that project will be to bring the detention center back into regulation, so it’s not out of regulation, as far as the number of inmates that it can handle, and certain other areas.”
Beck said phase one of the detention center would include an expansion to provide training rooms for officers, and for required breaks in accordance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act [PREA].
“They need to put in a medical ward to separate for medical treatment for sick and injured inmates,” he said about the needs of the detention center. “They’re over capacity. From my understanding it is close or will be, or is, out of regulation on that.”
The Chairman said the project needs to be completed as soon as possible.
“The primary problem is that the detention center needs to be compliant with the Prison Rape Elimination Act standards and those guidelines are set forth for housing 74 inmates,” said Beck. “So that is the major issue that’s pertaining to the detention center.”
The Marion County Sheriff’s office declined comment on the possible detention center project.
News13 reached out to the County Administrator, but did not receive a call back.
Beck said the new 911 system would cost $6 million, and said it’s important for that project to go on the November ballot as well.
“The tower requirements are just to meet the standards of the improvements that have been made to the electronics that are used in communication with all branches of service, as far as fire, rescue, and the police departments,” he explained. “That is a desperately needed improvement that needs to be made to our 911 system in Marion County.”
Beck said if the two projects are not funded by the penny sales tax, then the would have to be paid for by an increase in property taxes.
“It’s more of a fair tax that would be pushed onto all people that are in Marion County or traveling through Marion County,” he said. “The projects have been completely vetted by the commission, and we’ve gone through the process of looking at them, and looking at the details that were given by the sponsoring units. We made a decision on which projects we felt were most important to the citizens of Marion County.”
The projects presented by the Marion County Capital Project Sales Tax Commission have not been approved by Marion County Council, but will be presented at its next meeting on July 26.