The state may not go along with one of the plans Mercer County Commissioners came up with to handle sewage at a new county jail.

Commissioners are planning to build an estimated $17 million 265-bed county jail in Findley Township on 16 acres next to the state Regional Correctional Facility.

Commissioner Chairman Cloyd E. "Gene" Brenneman, who is the board's liaison to the jail project, has said a proposed regional sewer plant remains the preferred plan. But last month, he said two other options developed recently as contingency plans: the state prison could sell its existing sewage-treatment plant to a regional authority and become a customer or the county could spend an additional $1 million or more to build an on-site sewage system for the jail.

While buying the state prison's existing system could get the regional plan started, the system would not be able to meet all of the region's needs, said Elliott Lengel, a Findley Township supervisor who heads a committee studying the regional plan. Money would have to be spent to buy the existing system and then to add to it, he added.

William M. Reznor, a former Mercer County Commissioner who serves as the state Department of Corrections' deputy secretary of intergovernmental relations, said, "We have said that we would be open and receptive to selling our plant and would have no problem participating in a regional authority, but we cannot exceed our current costs.

"We are trying to work with them every possible way we can, but every proposal has called for a significant (spending) increase. It would be inappropriate for us to spend, say, $160,000 more a year to participate. We're spending tax dollars," Reznor said.

Meanwhile, plans for the estimated $5.5 million regional sewage-treatment plant remain up in the air as local leaders who crafted the plans search for enough money to create a regional sewage authority and finance the project.

Lengel said the five communities the regional plant would involve -- Mercer and Coolspring, East Lackawannock, Findley and Springfield townships -- are committed to the effort, which could spur economic development.

Now they need to find the money, he said.

"We're simply trying to accomplish what the state has encouraged" through initiatives like Growing Greener and Growing Smarter, but the state has not come forward with any financial backing, Lengel said of the regional effort.

Growing Smarter encourages regional development and cooperation, while Growing Greener is an environmental program aimed at upgrading water and sewer systems and protecting watersheds, among other things.

In late 1999, the state committed $650 million over five years to Growing Greener. But a budget crunch led Gov. Mark Schweiker to freeze a combined $100 million earmarked for the program in 2002 and 2003 -- half the total amount allocated for the program in those years.

Late 2003 is the targeted completion date for the jail, but bidding for contracts hasn't begun. Commissioners planned to advertise for bids in February but have said the project will not move forward until the sewerage issue is resolved.