CLEVELAND — The controversy over the proposed building site for the new Cuyahoga County jail on Transport Road continues to grow, with concerns over site contamination and RTA rider transit site access.
RTA rider Adam Bresnahan and other members of rider group Clevelanders for Public Transit produced a video outlining the more than 30-minute walk to the Transport Road site from the closest transit station on East 34 Street in Cleveland. Bresnahan also outlined the 18-minute walk to the proposed jail site from the nearest RTA bus stop.
“This site is not transit accessible," Bresnahan said. “The walk to the site includes damaged sidewalks, over-grown sidewalks, places where there were no sidewalks and we had to walk on the road with semi-trucks. Many people don't have a vehicle, so the only way for them to get to the new jail site to visit loved ones, or in the case of people being released, would be by public transit.”
"The proposed jail site is also located directly across the street from a concrete crushing plant, I can’t imagine that the air quality is very good. There’s also a concrete manufacturing plant and a Marathon Oil facility in the near vicinity.”
Matthew Ahn, RTA rider and member of Clevelanders for Public Transit told News 5 that the proposed site at 2700 Transport Road also sets up other issues.
“This is the most isolated site they could have found within spitting distance of downtown, it’s not the right site," Ahn said. “It’s not just a long walk. It’s a walk down a steep hill and then back up a steep hill. It’s hard to imagine anyone with any kind of physical difficulties being able to make this walk. There’s still a study that we haven’t seen about whether that $300M number for renovating the current jail is even too high; it may be even a lower cost once the third-party review is done.”
Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley filed an entry in Cuyahoga County Court outlining his request to hire attorneys to file legal action against Cuyahoga County council and the county executive if they decide to move forward with the Transport Road jail site.
O'Malley said he filed the request on behalf of Cuyahoga County presiding Judge Brendan Sheehan and the chief public defender over potential health concerns for jail employees and detainees, which could be generated if the new jail is built on the proposed site.
"Putting a new county jail on site that contains hazardous chemicals and methane, and benzene is not in the best interest of any of those people,” O'Malley said. “We as a county have to do what’s right not just for today, but for the elected officials, the employees, the detainees, 20, 30, 40 years from now. This is a very large financial commitment to contract a new facility, and if we’re going to do it, we just want to ensure it’s done right."
Those in favor of the Transport Road site have made it clear the site can be effectively cleaned up prior to construction and said any further delay could significantly increase the price for the jail toward a projected $700M. O'Malley believes county leaders should again look at renovating the existing jail location.
“Let's see if we can go in a different direction on a smaller site or rehab the current facility," O'Malley said. “County council has had the report on a new jail since 2014, and since that time the costs have tripled. So it’s ironic that they’re worrying about cost when it was their own delay that has caused the situation that we are currently in.”
