Nursing home bids recommended

Sheriff's Department chief administrator Larry Lowman displays a floor plan for a proposed county jail and justice center at the Bedford County Board of Commissioners Courthouse and Property Committee meeting Tuesday night. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Bedford County Board of Commissioners' courthouse and county property committee voted Tuesday night to ask the Financial Management Committee to take bids on Bedford County Nursing Home and on the vacant former home of Bedford County Medical Center.

The committee also heard a presentation from Sheriff's Department Chief Administrator Larry Lowman about the department's proposal for a new jail and justice center.

The county has an open request for proposals -- virtually the same thing as a request for bids -- on the nursing home and hospital building. That was approved in May. But Tuesday night's motion appeared to be an attempt to put the issue on the front burner by asking the finance committee to take action.

Commissioners indicated as recently as April that they did not want to sell the nursing home. That month, they voted 16-2 against the idea of a survey to gauge public attitudes about selling the facility.

"Things have happened since then," said Commissioner Linda Yockey, who made the motion to take bids on the hospital and nursing home. A death at the nursing home led to a temporary suspension of admissions to the facility, which has since been lifted. Also, the county's costs for maintaining the empty hospital facility are higher than some commissioners had realized. The county expects to pay in the neighborhood of $20,000 per month in utilities for the empty building, and is paying $1,300 per week for security costs.

Commissioner Joe Tillett, a member of the finance committee who attended Tuesday night's courthouse committee meeting, said the proper sequence is for the courthouse committee to study whether to sell the facility and the finance committee to handle the actual sale process, if the full commission decides to sell.

Commissioner Mark Thomas clarified that the county is not seeking to sell the Medical Arts Building, the helipad or the site of Bedford County Communications Center.

Yockey's motion to recommend asking for bids passed by voice vote. Yockey, Jeff Yoes and Chairman Tony Smith voted in favor, with Billy King abstaining.

Lowman presented to the courthouse committee the same justice center floor plan he had shown last month to the law enforcement and workhouse committee. The proposal is for a jail with five 100-bed pods: one "lockdown" pod, two dormitory-style direct supervision pods, a women's pod and a workhouse pod. Each pod would have a computer kiosk which inmates could use to look up court dates, state codes, and other information.

The center would also have five courtrooms and all of the related clerk's offices, eliminating the need to transport prisoners between the jail and courthouse. The court facilities would meet new security requirements that officials say can't be met by the current county courthouse. There would also be room for the communications center if it wanted to relocate.

Lowman said experts have told him it would be better to build a jail from the ground up, unlike the proposal one construction management firm made last month to adapt the old Wal-Mart site into a justice center. He estimated that a 20-25 acre site would be needed.

Smith asked about financing for the facility. Lowman said that while a jail would be expensive, it would also bring in revenue. The state is constantly asking local jails to keep state felons, and it pays them a per diem for doing so. A larger jail would mean that more such felons could be accepted.

The idea of accepting more state felons may give some pause, but Sheriff Randall Boyce said it would not make Shelbyville a magnet for criminals.

"When they get out of here," Boyce said, "the last place they want to be is Shelbyville."