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Finance Committee tables jail bond resolution
Daniel Zuckerman is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the Greene County Legislature Finance Committee voted May 14, to shelve the proposed jail bond resolution. The reason: so lawmakers can try to cut construction costs, reduce the bed count and reach consensus on building a new lockup in Coxsackie. Seven of the eight lawmakers on the committee voted to table matter. Only Legislator Kevin Lennon, a Democrat who represents Catskill, voted to move the measure to the full Legislature. The resolution would have authorized the issuance of $51.4 million in serial bonds to cover the cost of building a new county jail behind the Greene Correctional Facility off Route 9W in Coxsackie. It will not go before the full Legislature May 16, but could resurface at future meetings of the Public Safety and Finance committees because the measure was deferred — not defeated, Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden said. The committee decided to table the bond resolution because it was not expected to pass in the full Legislature, committee chairman Charles Martinez said following the meeting. “This was the best way out so we could just regroup and see if we could get the price down,” the Coxsackie Republican said. “If we could get it down to $40 million, that’ll be good for everybody.” The 110-year-old jail on Bridge Street in Catskill was closed April 20 for safety reasons. In February, the state Commission of Correction ranked the Greene County Jail as one of the worst county jails in New York. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.