The Cost Of Cumberland County’s $65 Million Floor Appears To Be Increasing

Last week we began hearing rumors that Cumberland County was about to get sued “for allegedly backing out of an agreement to build a facility to provide electricity and other utilities for a contemplated new county jail.”

I put it on the back burner because preparing for Thanksgiving and lots of turkey seemed more important. The rumors were confirmed when The Vineland Daily Journal ran with the story on Friday.

Now that I’ve come out of my food coma it’s time to complain about the fact Cumberland County has managed to get itself sued over the $65 million jail that will never be a jail.

The fact that Cumberland County had already borrowed (bonded) $65 million for a new jail, only to cancel the contract after breaking ground and building a floor, on dirt, no walls, no roof, nothing, just a floor did become an issue in the freeholder campaign.

The fact that Freeholder Director Joe Derella claimed cancelling the jail contract (and leasing jail space in other counties) would save money was also brought up during the campaign.

Apparently, voters did not care – they just went ahead and voted for the Democrats who control the freeholder board anyway.

Back when Derella was claiming the county would see savings this blog called him out and asked:

Savings? What savings? You borrowed $65 million. Someone has to pay that back with interest. That someone is the taxpayers of Cumberland County.

And now, here we are with another $6 million possibly being added to the cost of a jail that will never be built, but there is supposed to be a savings.

Even worse, the freeholder board knew this lawsuit was coming since at least September 22. From The Vineland Daily Journal:

The dispute also was not disclosed during the 2020 freeholder board campaign, though the lawsuit states a letter was sent on Sept. 22 to the county giving it 30 days to honor its agreement or face a lawsuit.

This means that if a letter was sent to the county on September 22 giving county government 30 days to make things right, the freeholders knew about this at the October Freeholder Board meeting and did not bother telling the public.

Even worse – and this is completely a guess on my part – no one bothered to share the letter with or tell the only Republican on the board about the lawsuit because knowing Freeholder Doug Albrecht the way I do I am fairly certain he would not have been happy to be told about this. He certainly would have made an issue of it.

To make matters even worse, the Freeholder Board, according to The Vineland Daily Journal, announced they were “re-evaluating its plans to build a new county correctional facility” on July 17 but it appears the Democrats may have decided to cancel the jail project as early as January. According to The Vineland Daily Journal article:

The lawsuit also discloses the first link between cancellation of the “Central Energy Center,” a decision apparently taken in January, and subsequent county decisions to cancel construction already started on a new, $65 million jail and to shrink its existing jail to function as a prisoner holding facility.

Obviously, if the Democrat freeholders were cancelling the project to provide energy to the new jail in January, they were also getting ready to cancel the jail. Why cancel only part of the project? An important part of the project!

I don’t want to call anyone a liar but someone has been doing their best to hide the truth from the taxpayers of Cumberland County.

Back in August when I blogged about the jail I wrote, “There’s going to be more to come on this story. Stay tuned!”

So far it appears the truth has been hidden from the taxpayers and from the only Republican on the Freeholder Board. Definitely, stay tuned, because it’s starting to look like there is going to be a lot more to this story.