DeKalb County mayors gathered Tuesday to express their support for the proposed public safety referendum and expansion of the county jail.

Every mayor in the county was present at the meeting and publicly backed the half-percent sales tax increase that would expand the DeKalb County Jail, pay to operate the jail and fund alternative programs.

Waterman Mayor Roger Bosworth said he studied the issue carefully before announcing his support of the proposal.

“It’s a small cost as opposed to transferring inmates to other locations,” Bosworth said.

Cortland Mayor Bernard Suppeland said DeKalb County is a growing community and the sales tax is the best way to support the expansion.

The current jail is from the 1980s, DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said.

The DeKalb County Board voted in October to include the referendum on the March 16 ballot.

If approved, the jail expansion should be completed by mid-2006.

“We are trying to get the word out as much as possible,” County Board Chairman Dennis Sands said. “In future days, you should hear about more organizations that support it.”

If approved, the cost to the average citizen will be $3 a month and the money from the sales tax can be used only for public safety purposes.

Items such as food, medicine, automobiles and farm machinery will be excluded from the tax.

The jail expansion would add 75 beds and would include segregation cells for those who are mentally ill, have a communicable disease or are violent and disruptive. The sales tax also will help pay for alternative programs that provide rehabilitation and reduce incarceration rates.

Sands and Scott both said they haven’t heard any strong opposition to the expansion, only to the tax increase.

“You will always hear people say no because nobody wants more taxes,” Scott said.

Sands said he hopes that when the citizens of DeKalb County see all the mayors support the referendum, they will see how beneficial it will be.

The county jail will continue to offer tours of the current facility to county residents until March 13. The tour lasts an hour and is conducted at 10 a.m. Wednesdays, at 6 p.m. Thursdays and at 3 p.m. Saturdays.

Those interested in the tour should meet in the lobby of the DeKalb County Public Safety Building, 150 N. Main St., Sycamore, at least 15 minutes prior to the tour time. Identification is needed and purses/bags are not allowed.