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If they want to put it on the ballot for the Jan. 15 presidential primary, the deadline is Nov. 6 for the ballot language.

The commission has been forced into a decision by a successful petition drive for a referendum on the county's proposed sale of $16.6 million in general obligation bonds for a new jail.

"If we as a board have the right to say whether or not to have the election do we have the right to say Ôno', we are not going to do this and just drop the whole project," asked Commissioner Gary Russell during Monday's meeting of the Public Safety & Courts Committee.

"If you are going to bond you have to have an election," answered County Administrator John Males.

"Do we have another option? What about private financing?" Russell added.

"It is still on the table," noted Males.

The jail study committee recommended having private investors sell revenue bonds in 2005 because no vote of the public was necessary. Also with revenue bonds the commissioners do not have to pledge the full faith and credit of the county's general fund. However, Males recommended public construction bonds because the interest rate is lower. In 2005 jail experts calculated revenue bonds could cost the county an additional $250,000.

Russell also asked the county clerk how much it cost to validate the petitions and how much an election would cost.

County Clerk Linda Kozfkay told the committee if they put it on the January ballot the state will help pay for the election, whereas the August Primary or any special election costs would all be borne by the county. She did not have the figures for a special election. Kozfkay also said she had not calculated the cost of validating the petition signatures, however that was all her election assistant had done the last couple weeks.

A petition drive opposing the $16.6 million project recently collected more than enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue.

Kozfkay reported that her office received 382 petitions with 3,866 signatures before the Sept. 14 deadline. She said her assistant validated 3,341 signatures, which was well over the 2,944 required. The committee told her she did not have to validate the remaining 525 signatures.

She said there is not deadline on when they'd have to hold a referendum according to the bond attorney.

The plan is to use bed rental from the federal marshal program to build a 200-bed addition to the current jail. The commissioners intend to pay for the jail by renting beds to federal marshal prisoners.

After collecting signatures, petition drive organizer Dennis Reid of Sandusky said most citizens oppose the jail expansion.

He has said the $16.6 million project is "absurd" and paying for it with bed rentals "a house of cards."

Commissioners have been discussing a possible jail project for about four years. The original proposal called for private financing of a 254-bed facility. The driving force behind the project is the deteriorating condition of the older part of the jail that's more than 50 years old.

Males said he just received another bill for $10,000 for jail repairs.