SHARON Official decries city's regional lockup costs

Costs are rising and it might be cheaper to run the city's own jail again.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- City council President Fred Hoffman said it may be time for Sharon to look at getting out of the Shenango Valley Regional Lock-Up program.
Hoffman, speaking at a council workshop on the 2002 budget, said costs for the use of the central jail located in the Farrell municipal building are approaching $50,000 a year for Sharon.
At that cost, the city might be better off reopening its own jail, Hoffman said, directing city officials to look into the matter.
Hoffman also asked mayor-elect David O. Ryan his position on the regional facility, and Ryan, who opposed the idea of a central lockup when it was first proposed in the mid-1990s when he was Sharon's police chief, said he knew the costs would rise annually.
Ryan, who takes office in January, said he would look at the issue.
City's costs: Michael Gasparich, city finance director, said Sharon spent nearly $31,000 in lockup costs in 2000 and expects to spend $44,000 this year.
The proposed 2002 budget shows a $50,000 allocation based on estimates of the number of prisoners Sharon houses there, he said.
James DeCapua, executive director of the Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, which runs the lockup, said the program wouldn't fold if Sharon, the biggest user, pulls out.
"It's a nonprofit type of a setup," he said, explaining that police departments that use the facility incur costs only when they put a prisoner there at the rate of $10 per hour.
The municipalities get some of their money rebated each year, DeCapua said, noting that revenue generally exceeds expenses and there is money to give back at the end of the year.
Questions figures: He disputed Sharon's budget figures, saying the $44,000 estimate for this year is probably way too high.
Sharon has been billed for jail time in the amount of $18,000 for the first six months of this year, he said, adding that later billings are not yet available.
Even if Sharon doubled the $18,000 figure, its cost for the year, after rebate, shouldn't exceed about $30,000, he said.
DeCapua said that he has no idea where the $50,000 figure in Sharon's budget for next year came from but that it would likely cost the city considerably more than that to reopen its jail on a full-time basis.
The lockup opened in 1994 when the county went to a central 911 dispatch system. Sharon joined about a year later. Inmates generally spend less than 24 hours in the lockup before being released or transferred to Mercer County Jail.