Public safety or pool tables for teenagers?
Does this make more sense than anything you’ve heard from an elected official since Dan Quayle said a mind is a terrible thing to waste?
The Dane County Board is voting tonight on borrowing another $21.7 million (and spend another accumulated $6 million) to cover the latest cost overrun (agenda item K-3) before it can pour concrete and set steel for a new addition to the over-crowded county jail.
[UPDATED 01-19-24: By golly, the County Board approved the extra $27.7 million after rejecting Jef Wiegand’s proposed cuts elsewhere. Voting NO: Yogesh Chawla, Kiersten Huelsemann, Anthony Gray, Heidi Wegleitner, and Weigand.]
We were at the point of giving up on building a jail tower on pricey downtown real estate just so it can abut the existing jail, constructed only 30 years ago. Build the addition in Verona on land the county owns at Badger Prairie, we said. But by gosh and by golly, the best county supervisor out of the current bunch (Faint Praise!) has a better idea. We are talking Jeff Weigand out of Marshall. Here is his idea:
Dane County is roughly $500 million in debt, and while I have and will continue to support the jail project, I cannot in good conscious support more borrowing to close the funding gap. This is why I will be introducing a pair of amendments at tomorrow’s meeting to close the funding gap by pulling funds from other projects. Here is list of projects I will be suggesting we cancel or delay to keep the jail project moving forward”
— Supervisor Jeff Weigand
Weigand would cut these projects from the Vilas Zoo:
- Penguin building $300,000
- Upper gift shop HVAC $125,000
- Koi pond Cleaning $50,000
- Aviary habitat project $450,000
- Heart of the Zoo project (new giraffe enclosure) $9,370,700
And these, as well:
- Farmer worker housing $8,000,000
- Fitchburg teen center $1,000,000
- Ho-Chunk history center $2,000,000
- Bike/pedestrian plan $150,000.
For the record, the faceless bureaucrats at Blaska Policy Werkes have nothing against the teenagers in Fitchburg (we don’t trust them no matter what town). The Head Groundskeeper believes in keeping koi ponds clean. We are willing to donate a box of Arm & Hammer baking soda to the effort. We suspect the Ho Chunk are making a pretty piece of change at their gambling emporium. Could they maybe finance their own heritage?
Unfortunately, proponents of the jail addition will have to muster three-fourths — or 28 — of the 37 members. Weigand’s spending cuts will also require a super-majority. A tall order.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: The zoo and the jail both have bars and gates, so that’s an even draw.
9 responses to “New jail may leave penguins in the cold”
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I thought “Free The 350” was going to end jail overcrowding. Oh, yesterdays news. The County will build a new jail that won’t be big enough or have the amenities for the “guests” that will reside there. They won’t remodel the old jail in the CCB. Maybe they can get the state legislator to let them add another 1/2% sale tax to pay for it like they did with the last new jail(public safety building). If they can’t get the money will they trim it down to 4 floors? I guess we’ll see what happens. Get some popcorn.
“I thought ‘Free The 350’ was going to end jail overcrowding.”
The everLUVin’ irony?
The 350 targeted for release by the virulently RAYcist Free The 350 Bail Fund all incuriously tested Melanin Positive, judging incarcerated EVIL Whities by the color of their skin.
What About The
CHILDRENPenguins…?To paraphrase Gordon Gekko: “That’s The One Thing You Have To Remember About Lefties; They Love Animals And Hate People.”
The Gotch
Being as penguins are biracial, defunding the penguin house should appeal to the yammering social justice warriors.
Koi pond cleaning! Ha! Only the liberal elites who run the city/county would, with a straight face, allocate taxpayers’ $$$ for something like that.
And speaking of liberal elites and their strange ways, did anyone see video of the spectacle at Davos, where an Amazon priestess (or something of the sort) performed a “ceremony” whereby she evoked the healing powers of the rainforest in a language no one could understand, then proceeded to spit (ceremoniously) on the foreheads of the assembled dignitaries (all of whom no doubt traveled to Switzerland on their private jets). I’m not making this up; it was on Jesse Watter’s program last night. The most frustrating thing about trying to parody liberals? They always do a better job themselves.
THEY/THEM/ITS has/have/had never met a tax dollar they didn’t want to spend, but this article — this here article — highlights some of the very special (short bus) policies prevalent in many cities across the fruited plain. We are in for a bumpy ride, pocketbooks/manbags/old lady coin purses and all.
Quick question for the Board……we’re bids submitted for the jail? Did the lowest bid win? With all these “inflating costs” why not go with the next lowest bidder? Maybe consider non-union jobs. You might still get screwed but I guarantee it will not be as bad.
Only one bid! All others decided not to bid. Probably had enough other work or don’t want to deal with the county.
“We were at the point of giving up on building a jail tower on pricey downtown real estate”
How’s about out by the breathlessly anticipated Public Market?
That there’s a place toward which a Giant Sucking Sound siphons off taxpayer $s with immunity, impunity, and with little scrutiny.
The Gotch