SCHUYLER The Herkimer County Legislature is getting serious about building a jail in the Schuyler Business Park.

Wednesday night the legislature approved a resolution to hire a firm to do an appraisal study on the land in the Schuyler Business Park.

This move comes one month after the legislature made that piece of land their primary site to potentially build on. The land in question sits just off Route 5 in the Town of Schuyler.

Right now there are two businesses already in the park, and one of them - Wilcor Distributors - has threatened to leave if a jail is built there.

The proposed jail would be built behind that building.

In all, there is 164.5 acres of land there. The county will be appraising two separate pieces of land.

According to the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, Len Hendrix, the county will appraise one piece of land - only 20 acres - and a second appraisal would cover the whole 164 acres.

Legislators do not know at this time just how much land they will need, because they are unsure how big of a building they will need to build.

The hiring of this firm, for the appraisal, is contingent upon the availability of sewer and water to the Route 5 site.

In the past, the county has been assured there is enough water available from the Mohawk Valley Water Authority.

The sewer however, would be a shared service from Oneida County. Right now there is another survey out there to determine that.