No Jail at Gracedale? Think Again

On Thursday night, 12 Eagles' Landing residents told NorCo Council that they are opposed to a new jail at Gracedale. They presented a petition signed by over 1,000 people. Many elected officials acted as though this was the first time they ever heard this idea. While no one on Council lied, their behavior was far from transparent. This can be demonstrated by comparing what was said Thursday night with the video of a meeting on September 15, 2016, when Corrections Director Dan Keen pitched the idea of a new jail. Council members were far more open in that meeting. Executive John Brown, who was running for state auditor general last year, was absent.   

Keen told Council that he had already visited over 100 locations. He wants a new jail, with 40-60 acres, on a greenfield. Locally, he told Council that "[w]e have a couple of areas of interest that we looked at ... potential sites. ...There is still some legwork ...to move it forward." Keen told Council he'd like to get started on a new jail next year and be done by 2020.

On Thursday night, Council President John Cusick told Upper Nazareth resident Bob McMahon, "I have no plan in front of me and this body has received no plan. ... I'm not familiar to what you're referring."

While there is no formal plan for a new jail at Gracedale, Cusick is quite familiar with the idea of a new jail at Gracedale. Last year, when Keen made his sales pitch, Cusick suggested it as the best of three bad options.

"There's here [Easton], which we seem to think does not make sense. There's Gracedale, where there's a lot of land, but we'll certainly run into a lot of local opposition and zoning. But if we have the will to do it, it could be done there. There is enough acreage. And then the third option is someplace else. Finding 40 acres where there's public water - certainly you would need public water, public sewer - those options are limited. So again I come back to this issue where we're going to need outside legal and or land development consulting to move this process forward. ... It's going to take time, effort and political will to move this thing ahead."

On Thursday night, Council member Hayden Phillips eventually said he would oppose a new jail at Gracedale. He is seeking re-election. His wife, who was in the audience, made sure she handed his card to every speaker. He implored them to call him several times.

Last year, when the new jail was pitched, he was less concerned about its location.  "The mechanics of where we are going to do it and everything, my take right now is that I'm letting the administration handle that," is what he said last year.. ... "I don't want to necessarily manage that, micromanage that."

Until he discovered it could cost him an election.

Bob Werner, ordinarily one of Council's most loquacious members, was curiously silent on Thursday night. He failed to clarify Cusick when the Council President attempted to create the impression that no one is even thinking about Gracedale.

Nobody did.

One year ago, Werner wanted to know how the plan would be marketed to Upper Nazareth residents.  "When you try to sell this to the community that you want to put it in - I have to be watch how I word this - If you market this to the community that you want to put it in, the 60 acres, and you approach those people that are on the boards that need to hear this, what is the benefit that you could say to those people on a new facility such as you're talking about?. What would you be able to offer them and say, 'This is not what you think it is.'?" 

One year ago, Werner knew very well that Gracedale was the site being considered. He actually participated with Administrator Cathy Allen in a meeting about it.

"Mr. Werner, I think you were in the one meeting we had met - and I don't think - yes, we're going to have hurdles, but some of the people we need to be in our corner will be in our corner," Allen said a year ago.

"There are people we have met with in the past that have changed," agreed Werner. "Positions have changed."

Neither Werner nor Allen said a word about this meeting on Thursday night.

One Council member is untroubled by public opposition to Gracedale as a site for the new jail. It's Ken Kraft. He is a District Council rep, not an at-large rep, and his district is Bethlehem. He does not have to worry about Nazareth votes.

Kraft is also a business agent for the painters' union, and sometimes treats his position on Council as a way to get work "What does the administration need from County Council to get this started, to get the zoning and the variances and things?" he asked a year ago."We could build it in a year for you," he pledged. He called Gracedale "the perfect place for it and we just did the sewer line and infrastructure and all the things we needed to do over the years to get there."

Werner responded, "That's true."

Kraft said nothing to Upper Nazareth residents who complained, but later threw a lifeline to Executive John Brown by changing the subject to the need for a morgue.

Brown may need a morgue for his political career unless he becomes more frank, and in a hurry, with Nazareth area residents.