Public Weighs In On Jail Addition Proposal

The Houghton County Board of Commissioners will meet Tuesday to discuss a proposal to add more cell space to the county jail by replacing the parking structure on the south side of the building with more cells, but not without some opposition.

The Copper Country League of Women Voters is hoping to persuade the board to consider the public’s voice before proceeding with the current plan. The League concluded its series of public forums last night with the third meeting in Calumet, where League members expressed concerns with the current proposal and referred to it as a “band aid” solution to far greater problems.

“The turn out was light. I was hoping there would be quite a few more people in here tonight but the discussion was very lively and I thought it was a nice meeting, all and all. At least we have the public understanding that there is a problem and something needs to be done about it,” said Houghton County Sheriff Brian McLean.

“We felt that a lot of the issues that we talked about here tonight, in particular the fact that, yes the jail has serious problems, the courthouse does, and the Sherriff’s office itself also do, and those were being completely ignored and not studied at all,” said Valorie Troesch, a member of the LWV, who explained to the audience that the League believes placing an addition on the jail does not solve many safety concerns and if that proposal reaches the ballot in November, those issues may not be addressed for many years.

The League presented some alternative solutions, including one that would build a new jail, courthouse and sheriffs office on a section of unused property owned by the City of Houghton located directly behind Wal-Mart.

The League has been conducting a survey and gathering public opinions.

Troesch said, “We’re going to present those results to the commissioners at their meeting next week. We don’t know what they’ll do with it.”

If the board were to follow the League’s recommendation and spend an additional six months reviewing public input, it’s likely that a chosen solution would not make it to the voters until 2019.