NORWICH – After a slow start at the beginning of the year, the farming-in business at the Chenango County jail picked up later on, regaining an average of about 40 out-of-county prisoners at $85 a day.

Chenango County Sheriff Thomas J. Loughren reported to finance officials Thursday that he has taken in revenues of $490,000 so far and anticipates making approximately $600,000 by the end of this year. The Sheriff had budgeted only $347,000 for 2007.

The jail averages 90 prisoners a day, with about 55 from the local area. Loughren said he would be increasing the facility’s original 133-bed capacity with the addition of bunk beds and new agreements with New York state counties that lack sufficient jail cell space.

Despite the positive outlook for boarding-in revenues, Finance Committee members remain conservative in their predictions for 2008, hoping for close to $500,000, but budgeting only $350,000.

“We are right not to put the potential numbers in there, that can change from day-to-day,” Chairman Lawrence Wilcox said. The committee’s Vice-Chairman Dennis Brown, D-Pharsalia, said the Sheriff “should be encouraged to take-in as many outside prisoners as he can, but to realize that these prisoners could go elsewhere at any time.”