County Dealing With Jail Sprinkler Problem Caused By Inmates
September 1, 2020 at 11:44 p.m.
County Dealing With Jail Sprinkler Problem Caused By Inmates
By David [email protected]
The county thinks it has a solution, at least for now, but will also have to find a solution to inmates causing toilets to flood in the jail cells.
County Administrator Marsha McSherry told the county commissioners Tuesday that, “We have been working on getting quotes for sprinkler head replacement in the jail as we’ve had some issues due to the old style being easily broken.”
She provided two estimates – one from Indiana Fire Sprinkler & Backflow Inc., Fort Wayne, for $24,000 to replace 160 sprinkler heads; and the other from Koorsen Fire & Security, Fort Wayne, for $32,785.45 for 160 sprinkler heads.
She said Chief Mike Wilson and fire inspector Joe Fretz from the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory have been helpful and supportive, and Jail Commander Shane Coney supports the project, too. McSherry said Sheriff Kyle Dukes is “possibly interested” in financially supporting the project, but she didn’t know what those dollar amounts are at this point. Coney said he’ll talk to the sheriff about it.
“It won’t stop the problem, but it’ll help,” Coney said.
McSherry said the county had to replace four sprinkler heads Friday morning, one Friday night and one Saturday morning. “It’s an ongoing problem,” she said.
Commissioner Brad Jackson asked if when an inmate broke a sprinkler and the water starts running, what happened next.
McSherry said they have to shut off the water. It floods the cells, the water goes down into the basement and there’s flooding in the basement. The county has had to replace some electronics in the basement because of the water, and it’s gotten dangerously close to the electrical panels and circuit boards.
“Hopefully, as he said, it won’t eliminate it but it will certainly help,” she said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said they’ve got to make sure the sprinkler system stays operational.
On sprinkler systems, Fretz said once a sprinkler system goes down, they give any company about four hours to get it back up and running. It not only protects the inmates, but also anyone else in the building.
“So it is required to have that up and running as soon as possible,” Fretz said. “A lot of the old heads are, to my understanding, a lot of the inmates are putting towels around them” and pulling them off, which creates the water flow. “In the fire code, there is a little section that says you can put a flow valve in there, too,” which doesn’t let water into the cell until a jailer sees smoke or a fire and presses a button to allow water flow. “That’s another alternative to this, but the quick solution is to get these heads replaced.” The new sprinkler heads won’t allow inmates to take a towel to them, but said it would only be a matter of time before the inmates figure out how to set them off, too.
“They’ve got all day to figure that stuff out,” Commissioner Conley said.
Jackson said it’s a “definite” problem. He said Coney is doing everything they can as far as disciplinary actions, but “it’s just a different breed of people.”
Conley said he’d like McSherry to look into the dry cells as Fretz explained.
The commissioners approved the low bid from Indiana Fire Sprinkler & Backflow.
McSherry also reported they’re looking into new jail systems as far as the toilets go.
“That is an issue with flooding because they can stand there and flush a toilet until they can get it to overflow, so that overflow floods the block of cells and goes down into the basement, so there’s definitely issues with flooding in that regard,” she said. “That’s a complicated process that we’re working on. We should have something, probably, within the next couple of weeks hopefully.”
The system they’re looking at would allow for control of the water flow to the toilets and around $27,000 in water savings on average, she said.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Approved County Emergency Management Agency Director Ed Rock to spend about $25,000 out of the CARES Act funding for 5,000 N95 masks and $16,580 for a mask fit testing unit with the trade-in of an outdated unit. Without the trade-in, the unit is $18,080.
• Approved Rock to spend about $26,000 for a high-level drone for the county, with all the funds coming from donations.
“We have a local person who has solicited from numerous different businesses, foundations, those type of things, to purchase a high-level drone for the county. The sheriff’s office already has the system in place that is required. They have people trained and are getting people trained to operate this drone,” Rock said.
The drone has to be ran through the county so there’s no tax on the drone, but it is all donated money.
The sheriff’s office will give up its current drone to another agency in the county so that it can have the new one.
• Heard a request from County Assessor Susan Engelberth for a vehicle for her office.
The commissioners asked her to get a price quote for the type of vehicle she was looking to get for her department and come back to them with that information.
• Approved hiring guidelines as requested by Human Resource Director Cathy Reed on behalf of the county wage committee.
“Basically what it is, is it’s a form that each department head will get. It has a list of questions on it. And it’s basically them justifying why they need to fill a vacant position in their office,” she said.
• Approved a request from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Sheriff Shane Bucher to apply for a $10,000 Stop Arm Violation Enforcement (SAVE) grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The grant allows law enforcement to patrol the school bus routes and “try to end the stop arm violations that put our children in danger,” he said. The program started last year and the town of Winona Lake will apply for the grant, with the county being one of the subrecipients of the grant, County Auditor Michelle Puckett said.
• Approved County Systems Administrator Bob Momeyer to upgrade the county’s internet through MetroNet for an additional $50 per month. The monthly expense will be $199.95.
• Approved the appointment of Brad Newcomer to the Nappanee Library Board.
• Announced the next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. Sept. 15.
The county thinks it has a solution, at least for now, but will also have to find a solution to inmates causing toilets to flood in the jail cells.
County Administrator Marsha McSherry told the county commissioners Tuesday that, “We have been working on getting quotes for sprinkler head replacement in the jail as we’ve had some issues due to the old style being easily broken.”
She provided two estimates – one from Indiana Fire Sprinkler & Backflow Inc., Fort Wayne, for $24,000 to replace 160 sprinkler heads; and the other from Koorsen Fire & Security, Fort Wayne, for $32,785.45 for 160 sprinkler heads.
She said Chief Mike Wilson and fire inspector Joe Fretz from the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory have been helpful and supportive, and Jail Commander Shane Coney supports the project, too. McSherry said Sheriff Kyle Dukes is “possibly interested” in financially supporting the project, but she didn’t know what those dollar amounts are at this point. Coney said he’ll talk to the sheriff about it.
“It won’t stop the problem, but it’ll help,” Coney said.
McSherry said the county had to replace four sprinkler heads Friday morning, one Friday night and one Saturday morning. “It’s an ongoing problem,” she said.
Commissioner Brad Jackson asked if when an inmate broke a sprinkler and the water starts running, what happened next.
McSherry said they have to shut off the water. It floods the cells, the water goes down into the basement and there’s flooding in the basement. The county has had to replace some electronics in the basement because of the water, and it’s gotten dangerously close to the electrical panels and circuit boards.
“Hopefully, as he said, it won’t eliminate it but it will certainly help,” she said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger said they’ve got to make sure the sprinkler system stays operational.
On sprinkler systems, Fretz said once a sprinkler system goes down, they give any company about four hours to get it back up and running. It not only protects the inmates, but also anyone else in the building.
“So it is required to have that up and running as soon as possible,” Fretz said. “A lot of the old heads are, to my understanding, a lot of the inmates are putting towels around them” and pulling them off, which creates the water flow. “In the fire code, there is a little section that says you can put a flow valve in there, too,” which doesn’t let water into the cell until a jailer sees smoke or a fire and presses a button to allow water flow. “That’s another alternative to this, but the quick solution is to get these heads replaced.” The new sprinkler heads won’t allow inmates to take a towel to them, but said it would only be a matter of time before the inmates figure out how to set them off, too.
“They’ve got all day to figure that stuff out,” Commissioner Conley said.
Jackson said it’s a “definite” problem. He said Coney is doing everything they can as far as disciplinary actions, but “it’s just a different breed of people.”
Conley said he’d like McSherry to look into the dry cells as Fretz explained.
The commissioners approved the low bid from Indiana Fire Sprinkler & Backflow.
McSherry also reported they’re looking into new jail systems as far as the toilets go.
“That is an issue with flooding because they can stand there and flush a toilet until they can get it to overflow, so that overflow floods the block of cells and goes down into the basement, so there’s definitely issues with flooding in that regard,” she said. “That’s a complicated process that we’re working on. We should have something, probably, within the next couple of weeks hopefully.”
The system they’re looking at would allow for control of the water flow to the toilets and around $27,000 in water savings on average, she said.
In other business, the commissioners:
• Approved County Emergency Management Agency Director Ed Rock to spend about $25,000 out of the CARES Act funding for 5,000 N95 masks and $16,580 for a mask fit testing unit with the trade-in of an outdated unit. Without the trade-in, the unit is $18,080.
• Approved Rock to spend about $26,000 for a high-level drone for the county, with all the funds coming from donations.
“We have a local person who has solicited from numerous different businesses, foundations, those type of things, to purchase a high-level drone for the county. The sheriff’s office already has the system in place that is required. They have people trained and are getting people trained to operate this drone,” Rock said.
The drone has to be ran through the county so there’s no tax on the drone, but it is all donated money.
The sheriff’s office will give up its current drone to another agency in the county so that it can have the new one.
• Heard a request from County Assessor Susan Engelberth for a vehicle for her office.
The commissioners asked her to get a price quote for the type of vehicle she was looking to get for her department and come back to them with that information.
• Approved hiring guidelines as requested by Human Resource Director Cathy Reed on behalf of the county wage committee.
“Basically what it is, is it’s a form that each department head will get. It has a list of questions on it. And it’s basically them justifying why they need to fill a vacant position in their office,” she said.
• Approved a request from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Sheriff Shane Bucher to apply for a $10,000 Stop Arm Violation Enforcement (SAVE) grant from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The grant allows law enforcement to patrol the school bus routes and “try to end the stop arm violations that put our children in danger,” he said. The program started last year and the town of Winona Lake will apply for the grant, with the county being one of the subrecipients of the grant, County Auditor Michelle Puckett said.
• Approved County Systems Administrator Bob Momeyer to upgrade the county’s internet through MetroNet for an additional $50 per month. The monthly expense will be $199.95.
• Approved the appointment of Brad Newcomer to the Nappanee Library Board.
• Announced the next commissioners meeting is at 9 a.m. Sept. 15.
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