County Judge Addresses Lincoln Kiwanis

‘BIG ISSUE’ FOR 2019 IS JAIL OVERCROWDING

Wood
Wood

LINCOLN -- Washington County Judge Joseph Wood recently addressed the Lincoln Area Kiwanis Club to give them an update on county affairs.

For 2018, the county Road Department maintained 1,500 miles through brush hogging and grading, Wood said.

For 2019, the department does not plan to maintain as many miles so it can make repairs to roads and asphalt other roads.

"We want to spend time building up some roads. Once it's done, it will be done," Wood said.

One of his goals this year, he said, is to have all justices of the peace spend time with the Road Department to see what goes on during a normal work day.

"We do this everyday all day," Wood said. "We want to give them a different appreciation of our roads and bridges."

He noted that most of the justices live within a city, not out in the county. Streets and bridges within a city limits are maintained by that respective city.

"We want to make sure they get out and see our roads and bridges."

As county judge, Wood said his priorities are infrastructure and public safety. Public safety includes jails, emergency services and emergency management and the juvenile detention facility.

In visiting with officials from other parts of the state, Wood said he is constantly receiving compliments about the county's services.

The county has received grants totaling millions of dollars since Wood took office for his first term two years ago. He was re-elected to office in November and will serve a four-year term.

For 2018, the county was awarded 20 grants, out of 21 applications. For the past two years, the county has received $3 million in grants per year and is on schedule to take in around $6 million in grants in 2019.

"That only helps the county," Wood said.

One change since he took office, he said, has been to outsource a veterinarian's services at the Washington County Animal Shelter. Previously, the shelter had a vet on staff but at times, there were not any animals that needed the service.

The shelter was able to reduce its budget by $38,000 by contracting for veterinarian services, instead of having a full-time vet on staff.

Wood said one thing he couldn't understand when he took office was why so many of the same dogs would come back to the shelter. He said he learned that college students would adopt an animal at the beginning of the school year, and then "on Friday, they would want to go to the Hogs' game and they'd bring the dogs back."

To help with this, he said the county is transporting dogs and cats to shelters in other states that need animals for adoptions. Northern states don't produce as many animals as southern states, he said.

"We give them the supply they need," Wood said.

The county is helping to serve more veterans. When he first came into office, Wood said the county's Veterans Service Office was serving about 15 veterans each month. Now, Wood said, the office is helping about 200 veterans per month. In 2018, the county served 2,300 veterans.

The Washington County Veteran Services office helps veterans and their families apply for Federal VA benefits and provides information on local resources.

The "big issue" for 2019 is a discussion about the overcrowding at the Washington County Detention Center and what to do about it. The Sheriff's Office has proposed a .50-percent sales tax to build a new pod that would expire when the debt is paid off, an estimated two years. Another .25-percent sales tax has been proposed to provide revenue for maintenance and operation costs for the jail.

"Do we need to expand the jail?" Wood asked. "I'm hesitant about that."

He said Benton County also is discussing the same issue and he wonders whether this area needs two jails expanding.

"Can we do a regional jail?" he said.

Wood said the county will need to "start going deeper" on the issue.

"We'll work through this with the JPs," he added.

Wood said he believes the greatest challenge for Washington County is to make sure the county continues to have the right leadership for the future. The county needs to have leaders ready with ideas and innovations to help make decisions to usher in new growth.

"I think we have that," Wood said. "We have leaders ready to step up."

General News on 02/13/2019