Jul. 14—County public safety employees are concerned about structural and maintenance issues they have observed over time in the Otsego County Public Safety Building.
Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. has advocated for repairs and upgrades to the public safety complex, located at the Meadows complex on County Highway 33 West in Phoenix Mills.
"Board leadership has been aware of the conditions of the public safety complex for years," Devlin said Thursday, July 13, "and continues to allow their employees to work in unsafe conditions with no plan in place."
Correctional Division Sgt. Thomas Fellrath, who is president of the correctional officers' union, said he wants the county to either fix the current facility or build a new jail.
"That's what it comes down to for me," Fellrath said Thursday.
Last month, the county's public safety committee approved a request for proposals from County Administrator Steve Wilson for an outside firm to do a study of county law enforcement operations — part of a broader look Wilson wants to do on each county department to study infrastructure needs and budget implications.
Inside the building
Fellrath and Daryl O'Connor, Civil Service Employees Association labor relations specialist and former Otsego County jail attendant and jail administrator, gave The Daily Star a tour of the public safety building Thursday, July 13.
The Otsego County Central Arraignment and Processing area begins in the building's public lobby. Inside, detainees are processed in an unsecured area next to where the public goes as part of the pistol permitting process.
What the public can't see is the electrical room with a leaking water pipe patched with a clamp, under which an industrial-size garbage can stands half full of water with pipe insulation debris soaking in it.
In the fenced-in outdoor recreation area, the blacktop is corroded and cracked. Fellrath said that in addition to being a tripping hazard, chunks of blacktop can be ripped up, which could be used as weapons.
There is only one room for interrogations, Fellrath said. The break room has been used when there's more than one detainee to interrogate, and there's nowhere to hold juveniles.
Half of the jail is not in use because it's an outdated dormitory design. There's no holding area for women. Due to the lack of space, Otsego County often sends detainees to the Delaware County correctional facility.
Fellrath and O'Connor pointed out water damage, rust, missing ceiling tiles and a crack that can be observed from both sides of a wall dividing the kitchen and the garage.