WALHALLA — Pickens County officials might not be ready to jump on the regional jail bandwagon.

Although Anderson and Oconee County officials have embraced the idea, there appears to be little interest in Pickens County, said Pickens Administrator Chap Hurst on Friday.

“Never heard of it,” Hurst said of the regional jail idea. “It’s not anything that Council has talked about.”

Hurst made the comment on the same day that Tri-County Council leaders Eddie Moore of Anderson, Reg Dexter of Oconee and Neil Smith of Pickens met informally at Tri-County Technical College.

Meeting for the second time this year, Dexter said talks centered on what to do with a 500-acre tract co-owned by the three counties. Dexter said the three got into the history of the property.

The counties purchased the property in 1995 to establish a landfill, but the plans fizzled when Anderson Country pursued its own landfill project. In 2007, Anderson also balked at a bid to sell the property for $2.8 million, although Oconee and Pickens were in favor of the sale.

Faced with overcrowded jails, Anderson and Oconee would like to at least look into the possibility of building a regional jail on the property.

Just this week, a consultant presented Oconee with three big-ticket options for building a new jail or renovating and expanding the old jail. The estimate for a new jail is $17.4 million.

Moore told The Journal this week that building a regional jail would make sense because it allows Anderson and Oconee to share costs.

However, Hurst said on Friday that the Pickens jail is meeting the county’s needs.

“Our jail’s really not much of a problem,” he said. “The Council hasn’t brought up the idea of a regional jail.”

carlos@dailyjm.com | (864) 882-2375