Published: April 14, 2009 01:06 pm      

Greenup County forming work farm

GREENUP — Certain offenders in Greenup County will soon be doing farm work rather than sitting in jail cells.

Officials on Tuesday announced the formation of a county work farm, which will be used to grow vegetables to feed inmates of the Greenup County Detention Center.

The facility will be located on about two acres of land the county owns at the Wurtland River Port.

According to Judge-Executive Bobby Carpenter, the farm will help reduce the county’s spiraling jail costs in a couple of ways.

By providing an alternative to jail, the farm will help free up cell space in the county lockup that can be used to hold state prisoners, which the county gets paid to house, Carpenter said.

Additionally, being able to grow vegetables for free rather than having to buy them will help to hold down the jail’s food costs, he said.

The announcement of the program came at a fiscal court meeting where the court also approved a $1.39 million jail budget for fiscal year 2009-2010, and approved the transfer of $100,000 from the general fund to the jail fund for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Officials said the transfer was necessary largely because of increased food bills.

Carpenter said the work farm was set up by a committee that included himself, Sheriff Keith Cooper, Darrell McCarty, his chief deputy; District Judge Brian McCloud, County Attorney Mike Wilson, Jailer Dallas Prince and Kenny Imel and Terry Osborne from the Greenup County Farm Bureau. The facility will be overseen by Glenn Reed, a retired police officer.