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The Blount County Commission will not even consider soliciting cost estimates for building an additional pod at the county jail.

The Budget Committee had recommended that the county ask potential construction management firms to provide construction cost estimates for free, without committing the county to appropriate any funds for the project.

During its Tuesday work session, the County Commission declined to placed the recommendation on its Jan. 15 agenda for consideration. Efforts to place the item on the agenda failed for a lack of motion after Commissioner Ron French withdrew his support.

The recommendation received opposition from several commissioners.

“This is the third time I’ve fooled with this,” Commissioner David Graham said. “No amount of money is going to make me change my mind about bringing these, now we’ve established they are dangerous, federal prisoners into our county.”

“Whether there is money involved or not ... It’s a bad time,” Commissioner Mike Walker said.

The Blount County Budget Committee on Monday decided against recommending the construction of a new pod at the county jail, citing concerns with the timing of the proposal in these trying economic times.

The Jail Overcrowding Ad Hoc Committee had recommended the financing of the construction of a new pod through the revenue from housing federal prisoners.

The County Commission had tasked the committee with figuring out the true cost of housing federal prisoners after the Tennessee Corrections Institute decertified the jail in August due to overcrowding.

The daily rate that the U.S. Marshals Service pays to house federal inmates in the Blount County Jail is $58.50 per inmate. Previously, County Finance Director Dave Bennett estimated a $7 million bond for the project could be paid off in 10 years with the county receiving about $3.6 million in net revenues if the county houses about 250 federal inmates daily. The break-even point for the county on the project would be housing 221 federal prisoners.

On Nov. 30, there were 443 prisoners housed in the jail — 164 federal, 66 state and 213 local. About half of the state prisoners were supposed to be in state custody but there were no available beds in state prisons. The jail is only certified for 350.