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Gainesville tries to escape jail debt
City in talks with new tenants
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The former Hall County jail sits empty since former tenant Corrections Corp. of America moved out, and the city of Gainesville is hoping a new tenant will take over the facility.
The fallout from Gainesville’s purchase of the old Hall County jail in 2012, and the subsequent exodus of the Corrections Corp. of America the following year, has left the city treading water on the debt payments it owes. Of the $7.2 million purchase price, the city’s debt on the jail currently stands at $6.945 million. In approving the 2015 fiscal year budget Tuesday night, city officials agreed to spend about $594,000 on this debt.