Do the math
Dear Editor: Let me see if I’ve got this right. The county commissioners approved the building of a new prison annex with a cost estimate of $600,000, which has now escalated to $800,000. The county is paying $40,000 a month to house prisoners out of county.
Theoretically, that means it should be 20 months to pay it off. Realistically, we must double that amount meaning it will take 40 months or 3 1/2 years, but the bond issue is for 10 years. That’s 120 months with a monthly cost of $13,333. That’s a monthly savings of $26,667 per month if it is done this way.
There is no question that the need is there for the annex, but what is the final cost actually going to be?
Oh yes, that’s right, we forgot to put locks on the doors and a perimeter fence to keep prisoners in and unwanted visitors out. Well, duh, even a sixth-grader has sense enough to know that. I can’t believe the stupidity of these leaders to forget something so vitally important.
Then we have the problem of 187 beds (persons) with only four toilets and four showers. Is one of the bathrooms for the guards? If so, that means for a 16-hour day (these men have to sleep sometime), with four toilets, they have 3,840 minutes or divide that by 187 men giving them 20.5 minutes a day and four times, for instance, nature calls, they can spend 5.13 minutes per visit to the john. If the guards have one of those toilets, they have 3.86 minutes per visit.
Oh yes, then there is the problem with the showers. There are four of those, too. If they’re allotted 3 hours a day, that’s 21 hours per week or 1,260 minutes divided by 187 prisoners or 6.8 minutes per week for a shower. They probably get to shower twice a week so that only gives them 3.4 minutes each time. Didn’t anyone do the math?
The commissioners are paid decent wages but their employees are at the poverty level. I wonder how many courthouse employees get food stamps?
My heart goes out to the regular employees because I don’t know how they survive financially.
Jacqueline L. Roby
Uniontown
Looking good
Dear Editor:
On May 30, I had the pleasure of seeing all the county schools graduation pictures. I was so impressed with the beautiful representation of Frazier High School. They reminded me of my days in school when the boys and girls dressed and looked like young ladies and gentlemen. To see the young men in jackets and ties, the ladies in skirts and dresses gave me a lift. How proud their parents and school faculty must be. They are to be commended.
Geibel High School also had a fine looking class and they also deserve congratulations for their presentation of what our young men and women in all the schools could look like.
I realize this is the 21st century and I need “to get with the times,” but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be a little old fashioned.
I still like to look well dressed and when I go to a restaurant I don’t like to see the men sitting there with a ball cap on their head, with the bill of the hat turned forward or backward. I still think that is the height of bad manners.
May God bless the graduating classes of all the schools and good luck to you all, hoping you realize your dreams for the future.
Janet McCoy
Dunbar