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Senator presses Department of Corrections CFO on prison cost estimates and sewer and water impacts; CFO says he lacks details
Summary
Senator Stubblefield questioned Department of Corrections Chief Financial Officer Chad Brown about when the agency first received cost estimates for a proposed prison and raised environmental concerns about treated sewage and water access; Brown said he was not involved in the earlier conversations and could not provide the requested details.
Senator Stubblefield questioned Chad Brown, chief financial officer for the Department of Corrections, about the timeline and cost estimates for a proposed prison project and raised concerns about water access and wastewater discharges into local creeks that serve private wells.
Nut graf: The exchange highlighted disagreement among elected officials and agency staff over what information has been shared about a large prison construction project, including its estimated construction cost and the infrastructure needed to serve the site.
Stubblefield said public records show the agency received an estimate in July 2023 that she called “short” compared with later figures. She told the committee that a later bid returned "a billion 200,000," and asked whether that figure covered only the prison building or included infrastructure such as water lines, power and roads. "Is that just for the prison facilities itself or does that include the water, which we're 22 miles from the nearest water source... There's no electricity. There's either gonna have to be a substation or a major line... and then all the other infrastructure does that and and the roads, does that include all that?" Stubblefield asked.
Chad Brown responded that he could not answer those questions and that he had not been involved in the earlier conversations. "Senator, I don't I don't have a response for your question. I wasn't involved in those conversations, so I can't give you those answers," Brown said.
Stubblefield also raised environmental concerns, saying the prison’s treated sewage would discharge into Mill Creek and Mountain Creek and run toward Sebastian County and Lavaca, where many residents rely on wells. "Would you want to drink water out of a well that had treated sewage even though the water's been treated?" she asked. Brown told the committee that the detailed budgeting and infrastructure questions were outside his "wheelhouse" and that the department and the governor's office remain in discussions on the matter.
No formal response or timeline for additional information was provided in the session. The committee did not take a formal vote on the questions; Stubblefield said she hoped to pursue further answers at a future meeting.
Ending: The committee acknowledged the need for additional information from the agencies; Brown indicated many of the questions would require input from other offices involved in planning and financing the project.
