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At the beginning of this year, the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department had $80,000 in its budget for medical expenses for inmates. The budget is down to $19,000 with half the year remaining.
Thursday, Sheriff Aaron Rovenstine requested an additional appropriation of $50,000 from the Kosciusko County Council to help with the prisoners' medical expenses for the remainder of the year.
Recently, the jail was at 200 percent capacity with approximately 177 inmates. Rovenstine said there is no way they can have that many inmates in the jail and not have a few fights break out, which caused injuries.
"We had a very few tense moments when we had 177 inmates," he said. It isn't always possible to get to the bottom of the story about each fight, he added, because inmates don't always tell the truth about the fight.
Council president Brad Tandy asked if there was any county insurance that kicked in at any time to cover inmate medical expenses. Councilman Jim Tranter asked if the county is responsible if something happens at the jail, like a fight. Rovenstine replied that there isn't any county insurance and that if something happens at the jail, the county is responsible. Responding to a question by councilman Lewis Bertsch, Rovenstine said that if an inmate has his or her own insurance, it should "kick in" at the hospital. Indiana Department of Corrections does reimburse the county for IDOC inmate medical expenses.
Another big expense, Rovenstine said, is having the EMS come to the jail "all the time." He said that protects the county from liability, however, should something happen.
"I assure you," Rovenstine said, "Kosciusko County is not unique in this."
The additional appropriation was approved. The council also approved another additional appropriation for $7,000 for the county sheriff's department to correct a mistake in the sheriff's budget for holiday and merit pay.
Rovenstine presented the council with a little "relief," at least temporarily. IDOC will reimburse the county for approximately $49,000. The reimbursement is a yearly occurrence and goes into the general fund.
"We got our $50,000 back (temporarily)," councilman Harold Jones said.
With the county and the city of Warsaw working to combine the two dispatch centers, County Administrator Ron Robinson said they have had interviews for a chief dispatch officer to supervise the center. The position doesn't require a college education but does require the person to be certified in certain areas. He asked the council to approve a salary ordinance so the salary for the chief dispatch officer will be $35,000 per year once someone is hired. The chief dispatch officer will be a county employee.
Robinson said they hope to have the central dispatch for the city and county operating by July 1. He said the attorneys are working on the contracts to combine the two groups. The five-member central dispatch board will work with the chief dispatcher but all will answer to the county council.
"I think it's a very fair salary," said Tranter. He moved to approve. The ordinance to approve the chief dispatch officer's salary at $35,000 was unanimously passed.
A request to transfer funds totaling $17,000 from the county commissioners' computer maintenance fund to computer equipment fund was approved.
Lisa Krull, Milford Library, asked the council to grant them their 4-cent tax rate from Milford property taxes for capital projects.
"Our library is growing out of control," she said. She said they are looking to buy adjacent property for parking lots or to add on to the building in the future. She said this year alone, so far, they received more than $10,000 in grants.
"We've had 60 new patrons a month for the past year," she said and they expect the trend to continue for the next few years.
The library now has DVDs, CD-roms, videos and more. "We've used our money very wisely," she said. The 4 cents from Milford property taxes will generate approximately $18,000-$20,000 for the library.
Jones asked if they had any remonstrators at their public hearing. Krull replied that they didn't but patrons are asking when they will have a parking lot.
The library capital projects fund pays for projects that are typically not in the operations budget.
Kosciusko County Auditor Sue Ann Mitchell said the county will receive the money from the Justice Building expansion project bond proceeds, which should be $1.7 million, prior to budget time. Of the almost $2 million, $950,000 must go back into the cumulative development fund. Mitchell said she wanted to make clear that the money isn't a windfall, it's simply replacing money the county already spent.
Robinson said the Justice Building expansion is on schedule and the construction company will begin work on the project Monday.
"It seems," he said, "like we're back on track and moving quite well."
The council scheduled their 2001 budget hearings for Aug. 21, 22 and 24, all at 6 p.m. The public budget hearing will be Sept. 7 at 7 p.m., and the final adoption will be Sept. 18 at 6 p.m.
Kosciusko County Council members are Brad Tandy, Jim Tranter, John Kinsey, Kathryn Teel, Tom Anglin, Harold Jones and Lewis Bertsch. They meet at 7 p.m. in the county courthouse on the first Thursday of every month.
