A bill is awaiting Gov. Tom Ridge's signature for the transfer of 15.8 acres in Findley Township from the state Department of Corrections to Mercer County for a new county jail, said Commissioner Brian W. Shipley.

Mercer County Prison Board Monday was ready to recommend county commissioners accept the land donation. But without details of the transfer agreement, the prison board instead agreed to continue its negotiations with the state.

Shipley, who is chairman of the building committee, told fellow prison board members that Mercer County lawmakers pushed the land transfer bill through both legislative houses in two weeks this month.

The bill was introduced after the state Department of General Services recommended the land transfer, Shipley said. The state Department of Corrections previously supported the transfer of land from the property of the state Regional Correctional Facility in Findley Township.

The land for the new county jail is off the dead-end Thompson Road. Contrary to claims by Thompson Road residents, the state Department of Corrections told the county the site is the only land available for the jail, said Commissioner Olivia M. Lazor.

Residents wanted the county to use another site on regional jail property with access off state Route 258. "There is no alternate site," Mrs. Lazor said.

Unless he can talk the governor into vetoing the land transfer, Forrest Bochy, 124 Thompson Road, said he does not know what else he can do to stop the new jail.

"I could spend a lot on lawyers, but what else am I going to do? Maybe I ought to contact the governor," Bochy said.

Bochy's home is one of five on Thompson Road. "I can live with the jail. I just cannot see all those people going up and down that road," said Bochy, who was contacted after the prison board met.

L. Robert Kimball and Associates, an Ebensberg, Pa., architectural firm, is expected to complete drawings for the new jail by mid-July, Shipley said.

Overcrowding prompted the need for the new 261-bed jail. In May, a record 235 inmates were committed and 240 were released, reported Warden Jeffrey Gill. Daily average population in May was 193. The 26-year-old jail in Mercer has a capacity for 114 inmates, meaning extra prisoners must be shipped to jails in other counties.

The estimated $17 million for the new jail will come from a $34 million taxpayer supported bond issue. The bond issue also is covering courthouse restoration, the recent purchase of a touch-screen voting system and planned renovation of two district justice offices.