Cochran
taps Silvercrest site for juvenile detention center
By ERIC SCOTT CAMPBELL
Eric.Campbell@newsandtribune.com
September 29, 2006
— A secluded and vacant New Albany
building complex, once home to developmentally disabled children,
could become a juvenile detention center if Indiana agrees to donate
it to Floyd County.
The former Silvercrest Children’s Development Center closed in May
after three decades of operation at the top of a winding driveway at
1809 Old Vincennes Road. The move was challenged and upheld in
court; state officials said costs were too high, population too low
and services too outdated to justify keeping the center open.
Now, State Rep. Bill Cochran, D-New Albany, has asked Indiana’s
departments of health and administration to donate the buildings and
land to Floyd County. The 42 acres are worth about $1.6 million,
township records show. The value is not known for the tax-exempt
buildings, which date as far back as 1940 and cover at least 60,000
square feet, one official on the grounds Tuesday estimated.
The best need that the Silvercrest vacancy can alleviate is lack of
room for juvenile detention, Cochran said Tuesday before he, other
officials and The Tribune toured the main building. The complex also
might accommodate youth shelter residents, county government offices
or family-court operation.
“We were handed a lemon by the closure of it, and we’re trying to
make lemonade,” Cochran said. “It’s got so many possibilities.”
Under state code, government entities get first dibs on the
shuttered state facility, and at the moment, Cochran’s plan faces no
competition, said Kent Farr, institutional finance director for the
state’s Family and Social Services Administration.
CURRENT COSTS
Estimates vary, but many county officials cite the same statistic:
without a detention center, they’re paying $1 million to board
juvenile criminal offenders elsewhere in the state, including the
Clark County Jail and a two-week “boot camp” in Muncie.
Clark County charges $100 a day to keep juvenile offenders, and
Floyd County paid it $121,750 last year, Floyd County records show.
A juvenile detention center of its own could allow the county to
turn the tables and take in offenders from elsewhere.
Children and teenagers who are arrested for running away, skipping
school or acting up at home are usually housed at the Floyd County
Youth Shelter on Grant Line Road, New Albany Police Officer Todd
Bailey said. Floyd County arrested 882 juveniles in 2005, records
show.
On the tour County Commissioner Chuck Freiberger and Councilman
Larry McAllister, as well as State Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany,
poked around inside the six-story Silvercrest main building with
Cochran and others Tuesday.
McAllister noted that refurnishing the stripped-down kitchen —
equipment was auctioned after Silvercrest closed, state officials
said — and controlling access to it would be expenses to consider.
Freiberger noted a need to expand parking. But both men reacted
positively to the plan and the facility’s layout. One obvious
drawback is the prevalence of flat roofs. Most of the Silvercrest
buildings have them, and most of those roofs leak.
“We wanted to show you the good and the bad,” said Bill White,
administrator with the state health department, to local officials.
Cochran emphasized how much he wanted to keep the complex within
government to solve its space crunch.
“I didn’t want to see it here and be developed into condos or
something,” he said.
HURDLES AND VIEWPOINTS
Nothing will happen with Silvercrest until the Department of Natural
Resources finishes its analysis of the facility’s historical value,
expected within about two weeks. The state group could call for part
or all of the exterior to be preserved indefinitely, though Farr
said that ruling would be one of several opinions considered.
Interior renovations would seem inevitable. Property manager Eddie
Woodruff said though stairwell doors and elevators have alarms,
there’s no ability now to “lock down” any section of the building.
State juvenile corrections experts would have to be called in to
judge whether the building can be properly renovated, officials said
Tuesday.
Though a county juvenile detention center is needed, Floyd County
Sheriff’s Department spokesman Frank Loop said, the county should
build the new jail it needs, then convert the current jail into a
juvenile detention center.
“You wouldn’t have to do anything to it at all,” Loop said.
Developer Gary McCartin arranged a three-week expert study of
Silvercrest after it closed, concluding that “it is going to take a
great deal of funding to use it as anything. ... It definitely would
take government incentives for someone in the private sector to use
it.”
As for the juvenile-detention plan, McCartin said, “I think
[Cochran’s] proposed use in theory may work, but they may find it
difficult to come up with enough money for it.”
McCallister and Freiberger said the next step would be to arrange a
Silvercrest tour for all county council members and commissioners,
the people who would decide whether the county should assume control
of the property and what use it would allow.
— Staff writer Jennifer Rigg contributed to this report.
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