Lennox City Council votes to take money on new prison offer

City agrees to deal worth tens of millions of dollars for sewer access for new men's prison

The Lennox City Council Tuesday night approved an agreement with the South Dakota Department of Corrections that allows the department to use the city’s wastewater system for a new men’s prison.

The payoff to Lennox and its water customers is huge: $10.5 million in an up-front payment plus a monthly user fee.

But it wasn’t a popular decision with most of the nearly 20 people who testified against the agreement. Most of the opponents were from rural Lincoln County, near the site of a proposed men’s prison that would house 1,500 inmates, including the highest security inmates in the state.