Board of County Commissioners September 17
Julie Merklin, observer
All commissioners present.
Kearns discussed the North Central Kansas Regional Juvenile Detention Center and its cash flow problem. The new philosophy concerning juvenile offenders is to not automatically detain them in such a center. Because it costs over $900,000 a year to operate and the charge to entities using the center is $140, a drop in use results in insufficient income to operate. Planning is needed for 2010 and staff is accumulating data to help with this.
Asst. Fire Chief Doug Messer gave an update on the replacement of rural fire stations at Swede Creek, May Day, and Blue River Hills. The new buildings will be larger, partly because modern fire trucks are larger. These projects are scheduled to be finished by the end of the year.
Jennifer Wilson announced that there is a new energy challenge from NACo. They will be asking for pledges to take energy saving actions in offices, homes, etc. Last year Riley County won a quantity of compact fluorescent bulbs because of the number of pledges they got. This year Walmart will give $5000 grants to winning counties.
Brad Schoen, RCPD Director, told the commission that it is difficult to make sure inmates are getting proper medical care. A medical professional is at the jail usually only once a week. Sometimes inmates describe their symptoms and officers have to decide if they are serious enough to warrant going to the hospital. Inmates will sometimes bring their medications from home. There is no trained person to supervise the proper use of these meds. Right now the secretary is doing the handling of medications but a supervisor will be doing this in the future.
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