Sarah Trafton reports for Columbia-Greene Media that on Dec. 4 Greene County legislators voted to eliminate the residency requirement for the sheriff’s office. While jobs were pitched among reasons to build a new jail in Coxsackie, the construction contracts were awarded out of the county, and now the sheriff will be allowed to hire officers at the jail from outside Greene County. There will be a public hearing on the local law at 6 p.m. Dec. 11 at the legislature's Catskill meeting hall. Currently the Public Officers Law requires that uniformed officers of the sheriff’s department and uniformed personnel of the county jail be residents of Greene County. Currently, Greene County has 17 correction officers. Greene County is building an 80-cell, 64-bed facility in Coxsackie, divided into three parts: a pod with 16 beds for female inmates; a pod with 32 beds for male inmates; and another pod with 16 beds for male inmates. The county predicts a July 2021 opening. The project is funded by a $39 million bond from Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. at 2.49 percent interest and another $8.1 million of taxpayer money The Greene County budget increases next year from $119 million to $122.35 million with a tax rate increase of 1.7 percent with the Greene County jail the leading reason for the new spending. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.