The lawsuit filed by Allen County residents attacking the financial proposal for the planned new Allen County jail has delayed the project.
A group of opponents called the Allen County Residents Against the Jail sued both the Allen County Commissioners and the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, or DLGF. The lawsuits came about a month after the DLGF approved the final lease-purchase agreement for the $300-million project.
Those lawsuits, filed in Allen Superior Court and the Indiana Tax Court, are still pending. The Allen County case has nothing scheduled until status reports are filed in July.
The tax case is awaiting a decision on whether the opponents need to file a bond while the case works its way through the court.
Federal court documents say that puts the jail on hold, in spite of a pending federal court order demanding that unconstitutional conditions of safety, overcrowding and understaffing be addressed.
Allen County Commissioners decided a new jail was easier than rehabbing and expanding the downtown jail and the county council agreed, barely, to fund it with a tax increase and available cash.
Federal documents filed Monday say for now, the progress on the new facility at the old Harvester site is moving where it can, using existing money.
