Sheriff discusses new jail project at Senior Center

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County Sheriff Jeff Crooks expressed frustration with the lengthy process, but said he was optimistic that eventually he and his staff will have a new jail.

“It’s been a tough process, it really has,” Crooks said. “But we all know that someday we will have a jail and an updated courthouse.”

Crooks and a few of his deputies talked to about 30 people gathered at the Charles City Senior Center on Wednesday, and — among other things — they discussed phone and internet scams that target older and retired people, they shared some stories about the department’s battle against illegal drugs, and they answered a variety of questions.

“How’s the new jail coming?” was one of the questions.

“It’s been a struggle, it really has,” Crooks answered. “You have to go through the process and we’ve had some bad luck. The architectural firm had some bad luck, which carried over to us.”

Floyd County voters overwhelmingly passed a bond referendum in May of 2018, approving the construction of a new county law enforcement center, including a jail and updates to the courthouse. A year-and-a-half later, ground has not been broken on the project.

“I’m beyond frustrated,” Crooks said. “This process should not have taken this long.”

Crooks said that he “just can’t wait” much longer to have a county jail facility that’s up to code.

“I’m the one who has to make sure that inmates have a place to stay. That’s what we’re trying to do here,” he said. “We’re trying to update our facility to get up to the state of Iowa code. We have to be compliant with that code.”

Crooks said that he doesn’t blame the Floyd County Board of Supervisors for the delay, and said that each of the board members has done a great job “trying to keep everything on track.”

“Supervisor (Linda) Tjaden, in particular, has worked really hard on this,” he said. “The greatest thing we did was get The Samuels Group on board.”

Sid Samuels, owner and president of The Samuels Group, has been working on ways to trim costs ever since bids came in September about $4.6 million above the $13.5 million that voters approved spending on the project.

“That’s really helped,”Crooks said. “I’m scared to think where we would be if we hadn’t gotten this project manager on board.”

Crooks said he thinks it will probably be a year and a half “once they start moving dirt” before the project is finished.

“Contracts are getting finalized right now,” he said. “They’re supposed to start moving dirt any day here. We look out the window every day to see if they’re here.”

Crooks also answered questions about problems with drugs in the area. He said that problems in nearby metro areas are eventually going to be problems in the Charles City area.

“We really look at what’s going on in Mason City and what’s going on in Waterloo,” Crooks said. “The things that are going on there are eventually going to make it here. It will trickle over here into Floyd County.”

He talked about a major heroin bust that occurred on Avenue of the Saints late last year. Floyd County Deputy Cody Van Horn made a routine traffic stop for speeding and found about a pound of heroin in the car, which was about the size of a softball, according to Crooks. The driver was held here in Floyd County and federal agents were contacted.

The shipment was presumably going to a dealer in Mason City, and the arrest “shut down an operation for two weeks.”

Crooks said the arrest was made just prior to New Year’s Eve, and that a dent was put into Mason City’s heroin supply.

“They figure he probably saved some lives,” Crooks said. “Putting heroin into a party weekend on New Year’s Eve, he probably saved a couple lives by making that traffic stop. It was a really big deal. It was great police work.”