La Crosse County leaders hope for a big turnout at the public hearing on the proposed $29.5 million jail addition at 6:30 p.m. today at Logan Middle School, 1450 Avon St.

They want your opinions, but they’d also like to spend a little time educating you about the need for a jail addition and the plans they’ve made to meet the sheriff’s jail needs for the next 20 to 30 years.
Sheriff Steve Helgeson will make some opening comments, and retired judge John Perlich will give some historical perspective before architect Paul Brummund explains the plans.

A few things to keep in mind:

$29.5 million is just the initial cost of this project, which will give the jail a new booking center, laundry and kitchen, in addition to office space and 108 more jail beds.

Another $2.85 million in remodeling will be needed later to create 48 more holding cells in the basement.

When those spaces fill up, it will cost about $10 million for each additional 114 jail beds, for a total of $20 million in today’s dollars.

None of those figures includes interest.

County Administra-tor Steve O’Malley has figured out how to pay debt service on the $29.5 million without raising taxes in 2008. But that’s only because the county raised taxes in 2007 for one-time highway projects.

With all that money being spent, you’d think the county board’s fiscal conservatives would be in an uproar. But from the discussions I’ve had with key conservatives such as Charlie Spiker, Ralph Geary and Ray Ebert, it appears Helgeson has convinced them the jail addition is needed.

Kohl fundraiser set for Oct. 9

La Crosse County Democrats will host a fund-raiser featuring U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl next Tuesday, the night of the Milwaukee Bucks/ Chicago Bulls exhibition game in La Crosse.

Kohl, who owns the Bucks, will be at Big Al’s Pizza, 115 S. Third St., from 5 to 7 p.m. A drawing also will be held for two tickets to the 7:30 p.m. game.

Lynch moves up GOP ranks

Sue Lynch of West Salem, Wis., just returned from the National Federation of Republican Women convention in Palm Springs, Calif., having been elected

the group’s first vice president for a two-year term. Lynch has been moving up in the federation for several years, and will run for president in two years.

CRG wrap-up

Citizens for Responsible Government-La Crosse County had a very nice turnout Sunday afternoon at the Southside Community Center for their program with Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance President Todd Berry and Chris Keismet and Orville Seymour of CRG Network.

More than 20 elected officials, including state Rep. Jennifer Shilling, and high-ranking staffers were there, along with people from several neighboring counties.

I’ve put some audio clips from the meeting up on my blog: www.rivervalleyblogs.com, if you’d like to listen.

Reid Magney can be reached at (608) 791-8211 or rmagney@lacrossetribune.com.

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