The Butler County commissioners, on a 2-1 vote, made the questionable decision to build the new county prison in downtown Butler, rather than on county-owned property near Sunnyview Nursing Home. Building at Sunnyview would have avoided the expense of buying property for the new prison and, according to some people familiar with the issues surrounding prison construction, would have allowed more-efficient prison staffing because a one-story, rather than multiple-story, facility could have been built.

The downtown prison will be, by necessity, a multi-story facility that already is carrying a projected price tag about $10 million higher than the $30 million the county borrowed for the project. If that higher projection holds true, the project not only will adversely affect taxpayers' wallets in a significant way, but also could be detrimental to current levels of service in some programs and county departments.

No doubt, there is uneasiness on many fronts within the county government over what the future might hold financially as the new prison moves toward groundbreaking.

At this juncture, it would seem that the uneasiness is well-founded. There also are grounds for taxpayer concern over a lack of communication that has been divulged surrounding prison construction. A project of such scope should be carried out with a communications open door, not a "door" half-closed or nearly shut.

But Commissioners James Kennedy and Glenn Anderson, whose votes sited the new prison downtown, apparently have taken charge of moving the project ahead, leaving others - including, remarkably, certain prison board members - out of the project "loop."

Overseeing of the project should not be handled in that way.

"We've never been privy to any of the contracts," said District Attorney Tim McCune, a prison board member. "We've been out of the loop."

County taxpayers are justified in wondering what data might be contained in those contracts that might have negative implications in terms of the downtown-prison decision.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Dennis Rickard, also a prison board member, remains convinced that the prison is not being built in the right location.

"They (Kennedy and Anderson) did not look to the future," Rickard said. "They only looked to the present. That's not wise."

Rickard was on sturdy ground when he observed that the county's growing population would eventually make the new prison obsolete - and that day might come sooner rather than later.

There would have been many more expansion options at Sunnyview than there will be at the downtown site. Future county crime statistics could eventually judge the Kennedy-Anderson prison decision as one of the great and most-costly boondoggles in the county's history. Unfortunately, it will be the taxpayers who will bear the burden, if that boondoggle aspect materializes.

Rickard admits that the site selection, though too late to change now, remains frustrating. Despite the project's having involved into no-turning-back status, taxpayers should welcome the ongoing dialogue about the prison decision. The more taxpayers know as a result of that dialogue, the easier it will be for them to understand when their higher tax bills start to arrive.

Few outside county government will ever be privy to the behind-the-scenes politics that led to the Kennedy and Anderson "downtown prison" vote. Likewise, few outside the county government will ever be privy to details surrounding the apparently deepening division among officials over the prison venture.

But there is a troubling message amid such sizable division, and that is that taxpayers should be becoming increasingly wary of how their money is being put to use.

Those taxpayers who have ignored how the prison project has thus far evolved might someday regret their indifference.