Commissioners seek jail input
Citizens encouraged to offer ideas; advisory committee could be formed
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

The Lampasas County Commissioners Court is inviting citizens to offer recommendations on the construction of a new county jail.

Commissioners last week said they would be willing to create an advisory committee if citizens volunteer by the next Commissioners Court meeting, set for Jan. 28 at 9 a.m. Those interested in serving on the committee should contact their commissioner or County Judge Wayne Boultinghouse.

"Let us know how you think we can fix the situation for the jail," Precinct 3 Commissioner Lowell Ivey said. "We thought we had looked at every scenario for this jail, but evidently maybe we didn't, so we need some fresh ideas."

Boultinghouse said the committee needs to encompass all sections of the county's population.

"I don't want it to be (all) liberals," said the judge. "I don't want it to be all conservatives. I don't want it to be everybody from Lampasas city. I want it to be the whole county represented fairly."

Sheriff Gordon Morris added that citizens who wish to offer input need to educate themselves on the state standards that dictate many features of jail construction.

"I think it ought to be impressed upon anybody that is going to come in and wants to volunteer to serve on that committee that they be willing to do a tremendous amount of homework, because that's the guidance they're going to have to go by," Morris said. "They can't say, 'We're going to build three tents out here on a half-acre of land.' They've got to know what the rules and regulations are."

Prospective committee members also should request a tour of the jail, Boultinghouse said, to show them the confines in which sheriff's employees work.

"I feel very uneasy the days that I have to go to the jail to talk to some prisoner," he said. "I feel like a rat in a trap simply because of the conditions at the jail. Some of you who are so against the jail or have no comment have never even done anything but drive down Fourth Street. That's the closest to the jail you've gotten."

In other matters, the court unanimously approved Larry Alexander's donation of 2,000 cubic yards of caliche as road mate- rial for County Road 2711.

The Commissioners Court also unanimously OK'd seven new board members for the Lampasas County Child Protective Services. New members include chairman Jacque Pickard, Dr. Christine Byrd, Sharon Davis, Gary Hahn, Barbara Hudson, Paula Gail Gott-Long and Vickie McQueen.

The number of children in foster care in the county has decreased to about 50, said outgoing CPS board chairman George Morley, because new state laws allow children to be placed with non-offending family members rather than in foster homes.

Also last week, Boultinghouse said termite damage on the floor near the courthouse's east entrance has been repaired, and treated wood has been installed.