MERCER COUNTY Bond issue isn't enough to finish jail construction

The county needs $7.1 million to complete the jail; it has $6 million.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- After further review by the Mercer County controller, there will not be enough money left over from a bond issue to finish the county jail.
There's been some debate over just what the county has purchased with a $34 million bond issue borrowed in 2001 and how much money is left in the bond fund.
Tom Amundsen, county controller, reviewed the account Wednesday and said the county wound up with considerably more money than originally reported and still has about $6 million left.
He said the actual amount borrowed was $34.4 million, and, while the funds sat idle before being spent, they earned more than $2 million in interest.
An additional $1 million in state grants were added to the fund, with $800,000 coming for the new county jail and $200,000 for the courthouse renovation.
The total
The bottom line is that the county had a total of $37.5 million to finance a number of capital projects, Amundsen said.
So far, the county has spent $31.5 million of that money, he said.
County officials have said they bought a $900,000 electronic voting system with some of that money, but Amundsen said that's not the case.
That purchase actually came out of money left from a 1992 bond issue, he said.
The county did spend $12.7 million out of the 2001 bond issue for the courthouse renovation, a project that was originally estimated at $11.1 million.
It also paid $3.9 million to refinance the 1992 bond issue.
Other major spending out of the account included $592,000 to move two district justice offices, $261,000 to pay off a Behavioral Health Commission building in Sharon and $13.9 million on the construction of a new county jail.
Miscellaneous other small expenditures amounted to more than $80,000, Amundsen added.
The net result is there is about $6 million left to complete the jail project. The cash balance in the fund shows $6.3 million but about $300,000 of that is already due contractors working on the jail, he explained.
Rest of work
Estimates on the rest of that work, however, stand at $7.1 million, a figure that includes that $300,000 already committed.
That leaves a difference of about $800,000 that county officials have said they hope to make up with pending grant funds of just over $1 million designed to reimburse the county for the purchase of the electronic voting system.
The jail, originally estimated at $18 million, is now expected to cost about $21 million.