A full-page political advertisement charging Democratic county and state officials with squandering taxpayer money on a new jail is drawing fire.

The ad, paid for by the Cheshire County Republican Committee and not authorized by any candidates, ran in Sunday’s edition of The Sentinel and stated that the jail being built off Route 101 in Keene is “behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.”

County Administrator John G. Wozmak responded with a letter to The Sentinel in which he says the ad contains exaggerations and inaccuracies.

“There is absolutely no area of the construction project that is behind schedule. We expect to occupy the new building in the first quarter of 2010. This timeline has not changed,” he wrote.

“The project is not millions of dollars over budget. As with all large construction projects, we have made regular, responsible cost reductions based on market prices for materials and labor to remain with the original $37 million authorized in the bi-partisan vote of the Delegation.”

The Cheshire County Legislative Delegation recently added another $1.8 million to the $37 million jail project for a geothermal heating and cooling system that, according to Wozmak, is expected to yield an energy savings of $6.3 million over the next 25 years.

“Even if fossil fuel prices drop, in a worse case scenario, this expenditure will be budget neutral for the taxpayers,” Wozmak wrote. “The contingency fund had only $320,000 added to it; hardly the millions stated in the ad.”

The ad also stated that the jail bond will cost an average family $2,000 in additional property taxes.

Wozmak said that figure represents the total cost of paying off the bond over 20 years, and that the payments will decrease over time.

Next year’s payment on the initial bond will be $3.3 million, county Finance Director Sheryl A. Trombly said earlier. Trombly said the payments will drop by $78,000 each year after that until the bond is paid off in 2028.

This year’s property tax increase caused by the first $3.5 million payment on the jail bond will be about $92 for a home assessed at $200,000, or 46 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, according to Trombly.

The ad, which compares the jail to Boston’s notorious Big Dig mega-project, lists Cheshire County Legislative Delegation members Henry Parkhurst and William Butynski, both Democrats, as having voted in favor of the jail in March 2007.

Parkhurst of Winchester and Butynski of Hinsdale actually voted against the proposal, according to The Sentinel’s record of the delegation’s vote.

“I just think that to do what they’ve done was a horrible, unthinkable thing,” Parkhurst said. “... The Cheshire County Republican Committee should have checked it out before they ran this ad.”

Butynski said he was surprised to see the advertisement targeted at a local race.

“Normally you find dirty tricks or misrepresentation of voting at a high state level,” he said.

After proposing to amend the commissioners’ proposed bond from $37 million to $35.5 million, which failed 17-5, Butynski voted against the jail.

“The ad tries to separate Democrats and Republicans,” Butynski said, “and it doesn’t represent where we work together.”

Juliana T. Bergeron, chairman of the Cheshire County Republican Committee, said Monday morning in a telephone interview with The Sentinel that the party stands behind its advertisement.

“The ad stated those were the people responsible for the tax increase because they were the people representing this county at the time,” Bergeron said. “I feel that while a couple of them may not have voted for it, it’s fair to say that group of people were responsible for the tax increase.”

Republican delegate Susan B. Emerson of Rindge voted in favor of the jail funding. Jane B. Johnson, R-Swanzey, voted against the jail. Republican delegates John B. Hunt of Rindge and Stephen T. Pelkey of Jaffrey weren’t at the 2007 vote.

No Republicans are listed as being responsible for the jail in the advertisement, which calls for the re-election of Emerson, Hunt and Johnson.

Bergeron did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment on the questions raised by Wozmak, who also did not return messages.

As for The Sentinel’s policy on publishing paid political ads, just about anything goes, according to Colin R. Lyle, advertising director.

“We don’t attempt to monitor it,” he said. “It’s pretty much wide open.”

The only requirements are that the identity of the person or organization paying for the ad is disclosed on the document, which must be clearly labeled as a political ad, Lyle said.

“That’s supposed to be the caveat to allow people to be aware that what they’re reading may not be the unvarnished truth,” he said. “This is no different on a local scale from what (Senate candidates) John Sununu and Jeanne Shaheen have been doing to each other on TV.”

Staff writer Casey Farrar contributed to this report.

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