As the Public Safety and Emergency Management committee of the Herkimer County Legislature continues to move forward on holding meetings about the Schuyler Business Park as a potential jail site, some legislators are investigating other options besides building a new county jail.
Legislator Joseph Chilelli has been opposed to  building a new jail since the beginning, unless the mandated size of the jail, 130 beds, is decreased to a size that he feels Herkimer County actually needs.
At a meeting of the committee on Monday, Chilelli brought out some options that he thinks the county should look into.
Chilelli did some research and found that the future trend steers away from each individual county having its own jail to having regional jails that multiple counties utilize.
There is also speculation that at some point there may be a switch over to single state wide jails that are managed by the state itself, instead of counties.
Chilelli suggests talking with Oneida County about the Oneida County Correctional Facility becoming a regional jail for Oneida and Herkimer counties. As for transportation costs, Chilelli suggests the county work harder at getting teleconferencing in place for courtroom procedures.
“Herkimer County could be the first in the state to set an example for being the first to utilize teleconferencing and be the first to utilize a regional jail and save some taxpayer money,” Chilelli said.
The legislators at the meeting then proceeded to discuss the option of a regional jail and just how feasible that could be.
It was brought up that Oneida County has previously rejected any offer Herkimer County has made to share services. The jail in Oneida County also does not have the capacity to take all of the prisoners from the Herkimer County jail.
Herkimer County has had to board some of its prisoners out to Fulton County due to the limited capacity of Oneida County.
Legislator Helen Rose agrees with Chilelli and says it’s worth looking into.
“We owe it to the people to look outside the box and see what we can do,” Rose said.
However, other legislators are afraid the state commission of corrections will close the current correctional facility if they don’t keep moving forward on a jail site.
“They’ve kept us open this long because we’re moving forward,” Legislator Ray Smith said. “When you stop moving forward that’s when they’ll shut you down.”
“I’m not saying to stop moving forward,” Chilelli said. “Just research this option as well.”
The committee decided to talk to Assemblyman Marc Butler and State Sen. James Seward about this study and how feasible it would be to share services with Oneida County. The committee will also talk to Oneida County and see if officials there are even interested in pursing the regional jail option. At the same time, meetings will continue for the Schuyler Business Park jail location.
The committee is planning on setting up meetings with Oneida County to discuss water and sewer at the site, talking to the Mohawk Valley Water Authority and the Department of Environmental Conservation, to find out if the site is a feasible one for the jail. If the committee finds out the site is a feasible one, members will meet with the public. If it is decided to purchase the site, that will come back to the Public Safety and Emergency Management Committee. If approved there, it will go before the entire legislature.
Herkimer County Administrator James Wallace expects the whole process to take at least a month.