Monticello, NY –  Sullivan County officials are now considering a parcel of land near the old county landfill as the future location for a new county jail.

Until now, the legislature was looking into the Mapes property, just off Exit 104, and had briefly considered, but have now rejected, a former corrections facility site in Woodbourne.

When weighing the cost to the taxpayers that would be incurred with the Mapes site, they are now looking into a 45 acre site located off Landfill Drive in the Town of Thompson behind the New York State Department of Transportation offices.

The site, which was recently foreclosed on by the county, would house approximately 500 inmates and could possibly hold prisoners from other locations, according to Public Works Committee Chairman David Sager.

The new location would also be able to tap into the Monticello water and sewer lines and, the jail could be heated and cooled with the methane gas produced by the capped landfill. And that could save county taxpayers millions, said Sager.

“It’s always been something important to me to limit the costs of any possible jail construction, but it’s also been extremely important for me to utilize the methane gas that’s in the landfill and I thought that that would be a perfect venture,” said Sager.

In addition to utilizing the methane gas in the landfill for the jail, Sager said it could be used as a revenue stream for the county as the state has expressed interest in purchasing some of it as well.

The State Commission of Corrections has not given any specified guidelines with regard to the location of the new prison so, Sager feels, “there should be no reason not to look into this location as a cost saving measure.”

He said the layout of the land would lend itself to construction.”

(Source: MidHudsonNews)