The fate of a second petition asking for a public vote on the Mower County Jail and Justice Center project rests in the hands of Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen.

The “official” petition of protest was filed Friday afternoon with Mower County Auditor/Treasurer Doug Groh.

“I will turn over the petition to the Mower County attorney to rule on,” said Groh after Tony Bennett and Dan Vermilyea submitted the petition to him.

“She will decide if the petition was filed under the correct statute and where it can go from there,” Groh said.

Nelsen, legal counsel to the Mower County Board, said Friday, “My role in this case is to provide legal counsel to the county board. I have provided a legal opinion based upon the relevant statutes.”

Bennett submitted notice — as he described the act — of a similar petition asking taxpayers be allowed to vote on jail bonding, to the Mower County Board of Commissioners Monday, March 16, when they met to award bids for the new jail and justice center project.

At that meeting, the Mower County attorney ruled the statute under which the county board was seeking to bond for construction of a new jail and justice center did not require a vote of taxpayers.

No action was taken and the petition-filers went away to plan new strategy.

On Friday, they acted.

“On behalf of more than 1,000 signed supporters, members of the Mower County Taxpayers League officially filed a petition asking for a public vote on Mower County’s proposed bonding for a justice center,” Bennett said on behalf of the organization. “As a courtesy, the group informed the Mower County Commissioners of their petition drive during a board meeting on March 16.  The board over-stepped their authority by passing a motion to reject the petition even though it had not yet been filed.

“On advice of legal counsel, the petition followed the requirements of Minnesota statutes and was filed with the Mower County auditor-treasurer Friday in order to begin the process of requiring a special election for the voters of Mower County.”

Bennett said, “We have every reason to believe the petition is valid and cannot be simply rejected by the commissioners.

“We’ve done our homework and intend to pursue this until the special election is held,” he said. “A vote to proceed with the justice center would solidify an 18 percent property tax increase and put the county $28 million into debt,” Bennett said.

Mower County has sold $10 million in lease revenue purchase bonds, courtesy of the Mower County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, to build the justice center only portion of the downtown Austin project.

Contracts in the amount of $30.7 million have been awarded by Mower County for construction of a new two-story, 128-bed jail and justice center across Second Street Northeast from the Austin Daily Herald.

Soil corrections are presently being made at the site to prepare for the pouring of concrete footings for the new facilities.

While the local protests may be considered too late, the submission of a petition is evidence they are real.

Bennett, an Austin businessman, is the most outspoken critic.

“The first bond issued for the project was for $10 million and structured as a lease revenue bond,” he said. “No provisions for a public vote are allowed with that type of bond.

“Mower County citizens’ first and only opportunity to require an election comes now with the county’s proposed general obligation bonds of approximately $18 million,” he said.

Another petition-supporter, Vermilyea, said, “The project has gotten out of control, and every attempt by the public to ask them to reevaluate has been rejected. ”

“They won’t listen to reason so they have left us with no choice but to exercise our legal rights as voters and taxpayers,” he said.

County coordinator Craig Oscarson said Friday that submitting the petition to the auditor-treasurer for the Mower County attorney’s review was the correct process.

He, too, expressed surprise the jail study committee and Mower County Board didn’t hear from opponents during the review process .

“The time to do something like this was three years ago,” he said.

Meanwhile, the county plans to continue with the process of preparing the site for construction of a new jail and justice center, according to Oscarson.

The county board is presently two people short: both chairman Dave Tollefson, 5th District, and Ray Tucker, 2nd District, are on medical leaves of absence.

The remaining three-member board of Dave Hillier, 3rd District and temporary chairman, Dick Lang, 4th District, and Tim Gabrielson, 1st District, is not slated to meet until Tuesday, April 7.