The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office held a Press Conference along with the City of Gadsden on Thursday afternoon to announce that the Sheriff’s Office, the Etowah County Commission and the Gadsden City Council has reached an agreement to continue housing Gadsden Municipal Inmates at the Etowah County Jail.

During that press conference, Sheriff Jonathan Horton said the contract is retroactive back to March 1, 2019 and will continue to February 29, 2020. The previous contract that was set to expire October 31 of this year will be replaced. The total contract price will be $650,000 for one year. The new contract is an additional $300,000 than the previous contract.

Horton said that the new contract is in ‘good faith’ in many different regards. The previous contract prior to the last contract had capacity amounts, the new contract does not have a capacity amount. Sheriff Horton said that depending on how good that faith is over the next year will determine where the next contract is. He went onto say that he has full assurance based on the communications that he has had that this is a true unified agreement between all parties involved.

Sheriff Horton said that this was a monumental cooperative effort between all entities involved and that he was pleased to see the extensive arbitration that has evolved from all parties. A number of officials from the Gadsden City Council, Mayor Sherman Guyton, Etowah County Commissioners and Commission President Joey Statum were all present for the announcement.

Horton said that this is a big step toward a multitude of joint efforts and cooperative actions between the city and the county in increasing the betterment of all cities in Etowah County.

The new contract will go into effect on Friday, March 15.