The Lane County Board of Commissioners plans to ask voters to renew a public safety levy to fund jail beds. The 5-year levy will be placed on the May 2017 ballot.
The levy was first passed in 2013 and since then, Sheriff Byron Trapp says the county has doubled the number of beds for juvenile offenders and increased capacity at the Lane County Jail to 317 beds.
Trapp: “We are not releasing, because of capacity, the very dangerous offenders that we were 4 years ago. So, we are certainly in a much better position today with the county’s public safety.”
Trapp says the renewal will keep the levy at 55 cents per $1-thousand assessed property value.
Trapp: “There’s no changes. The money can’t be used any differently than it was originally passed. And I am committed to insure that we continue forward maintaining the promises that we’ve made and will continue to do that for the next 5 years.”
Trapp says since the levy passed, the Sheriff’s office has hired more than 100 deputies. About 60 have retired or moved on. He’s hoping to hire more deputies and open more jail beds if the public safety levy is renewed by voters in May.
