Faced with budget uncertainties and some jail cost overruns,Lincoln County supervisors have delayed until Wednesday a decisionon how to proceed with a $500,000 bond issue for a libraryimprovements project.

Faced with budget uncertainties and some jail cost overruns,Lincoln County supervisors have delayed until Wednesday a decisionon how to proceed with a $500,000 bond issue for a libraryimprovements project.

“The taxpayers have to pay for it, and my thought is the lesseryears we can have, the better it is,” said District 1 SupervisorCliff Givens during Monday’s board meeting.

Supervisors favor a quicker, 10-year payback schedule that wouldactually cost the county around $660,000. Longer payback periods of15 years and 20 years are estimated to cost $752,000 and $852,000respectively.

However, the 10-year payback also means higher yearly paymentsof around $66,500.

With whatever bond issue-related expenses, budget decisionsstill to be made and the county needing $200,000 to covercompletion of the jail, Comptroller David Fields urged supervisorsto hold off on a decision until a Wednesday discussion on thebudget.

“We need to make a decision understanding what we’re looking atwith the overall picture,” Fields said.

The need for additional jail money comes after $200,000 forunfunded contingencies was spent.

“The big chunk of it was the mechanical room that was over$100,000,” Fields told supervisors.

Fields said a mechanical room to house 911 computers, telephoneand other communications equipment was included in original plans.However, it was not designed large enough to accommodate the sizeof the equipment and had to be modified.

In planning for the jail, supervisors approved a $3.3 millionbond issue which, after related expenses were taken out, left $3.2million to spend on the jail. The jail bid was just over $3.4million, including $200,000 for contingencies.

Available bond issue funds would have been sufficient if therehad not been any changes that necessitated going into thecontingency amount.

“It kept getting hit and hit until we used up the $200,000,”Fields said.

To address jail funding, Givens suggested putting a mill on thetax levy for a year to cover the costs. Adding the needed jailamount to the library bond issue was also discussed, butsupervisors said that would be more costly in the long run.

Fields, though, said that would be in the general fund and thereis a 10 percent cap on much a county can go up from one year to thenext. He mentioned county funding requests and their possibleimpact on the budget.

Although bond-issue revenue is not governed by the capprovisions, County Attorney Bob Allen indicated a general fundmillage increase and the higher bond issue payment schedule wouldnot be a good mix.

“If you add, the 10-year payback gets you into a crunch,” Allensaid.

With county officials considering roof and other courthousemaintenance, plus the jail not being completely finished, Allensaid it might be premature to act on the jail funding.

District 4 Supervisor W.D. “Doug” Moak pushed for a decision onthe library.

“We need to act on this library thing, because they’re trying toget something done,” Moak said.

Library officials are planning an approximately $1 millionproject using the county funds and a $500,00 grant from the state.Items to be addressed with the grant project include a newchildren’s area, installation of an elevator and upgrading ofentrances and other areas for handicap accessibility.

The new budget year starts Oct. 1.

During Monday’s discussion, Givens offered an unpleasantforecast for county taxpayers. After hoping to be able to cuttaxes, the supervisor said the county may be in for its biggestincrease since he’s been in office.

“I don’t see any way around it,” Givens said about a possibletax increase. “I hope we don’t, and I hope I’m wrong.”