New jail proposal on November election ballot

SOUTH ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The November election is right around the corner and the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office is sharing information about an issue on the ballot.

Muskingum County is in need of a new jail facility. A bond issue on the ballot proposes a 1 mill levy for 30 years. The levy will cost taxpayers around 35 dollars a year on a 100 thousand dollar home value. Sheriff Matt Lutz says the current jail is too small to house the county’s needs and the county is spending large sums of money to house prisoners in other counties.

“Building a bigger jail would give us the possibility of taking prisoners from other counties. So instead of us paying 80 to 100 thousand out to another county to house we could possibly be getting income back from those counties.”

The Sheriff’s Office is hoping to do more than just house prisoners if the facility is built. They would also like to use the facility to tackle the growing opioid issue plaguing the community.

“One of the ideas we have with building something a little bit bigger….we could possibly provide some beds to act like an in-house treatment facility center. There’s very limited in-house rehab in Muskingum County. We have a lot of out-patient services, but we’re thinking we can create an environment where our out-patient services could come to the jail.”

Residents can learn more information on the levy and have all of their questions answered at a community meeting at the South Zanesville Fire Station tomorrow from 6 to 7 p.m..