County can’t afford to wait any longer

[Source: “County can’t afford to wait any longer,” Press Citizen, 6 April 2013, Letter to the Editor by John Lundell]

The proposed Johnson County courthouse enhancements and expansion of the jail need to be approved now. The thoughtful improvements will resolve long overdue security and legal system shortfalls in the courthouse and eliminate the costly shortage of jail capacity.

Johnson County residents cannot afford to postpone these needed improvements any longer. I don’t want to continue spending $1.3 million per year to house our criminals outside of Johnson County when we can use that money to eliminate that need. And these unnecessary costs will increase as our criminal population rises with our growing county.

Similarly, the critical improvements to our outdated courthouse judicial space will only escalate in cost if we don’t vote yes on this proposal. The well-designed improvements will greatly increase the efficiency of the court system operations and result in quicker legal resolution.

A particularly critical need is the security aspect of the courthouse improvements. Unfortunately without the proposed weapons screening for judicial visitors it is only a matter of time before a tragedy occurs in Johnson County.

I urge my Johnson County residents to resolve these issues now. Join me in voting yes for the justice center on May 7. We can’t afford to wait any longer.

John Lundell

Coralville