Sheriff requests funds for additional jailers

By Lisa Majors-Duff

Cruzan, with assistance from county Manager Ken Westmoreland, appeared before county commissioners last week (Oct. 18) to request six additional jailers and one secretary be employed and trained prior to the new detention center's opening. Additional staff members are needed, Cruzan said, because the new jail will hold twice as many prisoners as the old jail - 48 compared to 22.

"We can't put them in there cold," Cruzan said of the new jailers. "We are getting a more violent type of prisoner, not just in this jail, but statewide."

The new jailers will need time to become familiar with jail operations, with the new facility and its operational requirements, and to participate in a six-week mandatory training session prior to being totally functional in their duties, Westmoreland told the board.

"A jail environment can be stressful and dangerous," the county manager said. "A large contingency of new, under-trained staff in an unfamiliar operational setting could be a prescription for an undesirable event."

Westmoreland then requested the new jailers be hired at a rate of two during the next three quarters. He presented the board with a cost estimate for the additional seven staffers - nearly $200,000 - but not a funding source.

Both Commissioners Stacy Buchanan and Roberta Crawford questioned the need for additional jailers considering the technical advances planned for the new facility. But Cruzan assured them the additional capacity warranted the new employees.

"We are under staffed as it is," the sheriff said. "We might be housing federal prisoners here, too. We don't know how many, but we'll stay full. In another five to 10 years you'll be looking at putting another pod on the jail."

Jail operations adjacent to the old county courthouse are overseen by a jail supervisor and six jailers, Cruzan said. Jailers are charged with a variety of duties, including booking prisoners as they arrive, giving them their meals and any required medications, answering the telephone and making rounds every 30 minutes.

Commissioners did not act on the sheriff's recommendation.

The new law enforcement center, being built at a cost of nearly $6 million, will house the Sheriff's Department in addition to the new jail. Additional county offices are also proposed to be housed there.

After a brief recess to determine if a closed session was necessary to discuss the county's contract with garbage/recycling hauler GDS, commissioners listened to a report from consultant John Thornton of Altamont, a firm hired to assist the county with solid waste issues, in open session. Thornton, GDS former general manager, reported that he has been negotiating new contract terms with GDS officials for several months, the results of which include an annual reduction of $44,508 in the cost of hauling and container rental, beginning in January.

GDS also agreed to remain flexible on the number of staffed recycling center locations and their hours of operation in the event the board decides to increase or decrease either. The same flexibility will apply as to where solid waste and recyclables are hauled, should the county decide to make a change, he said.

After recommending the county approve the five-year contract with GDS, Thornton agreed a final decision from the board would not be immediately necessary.

"We'd like a decision before January so the county can begin to take advantage of the savings," he said.

In other business to come before the board, commissioners met with Mark Jamison, chairman of the planning board's cell tower subcommittee. Board members agreed a third party will be necessary to administer the county's new rules for cell tower construction. Board members also agreed that the direction the planning board is taking with respect to the draft ordinance is sufficient.

Planning board members presented commissioners with a draft ordinance earlier this month; at the same time they requested an extension of the moratorium on cell tower construction, which is now scheduled to run through February.

In a last-minute addition to the agenda, Malcolm MacNeill requested the board draft a resolution to be sent to the Department of Transportation, requesting they schedule a meeting in Jackson County to discuss the proposed southern loop.

"We feel the DOT owes the people of this county who want to express their opinion on this road," MacNeill said.

Commissioner Conrad Burrell, who also serves on the DOT board, said a meeting on the proposed Sylva bypass is not warranted until the feasibility study is completed. County officials took no action, though the Webster Town Board voted unanimously Oct. 11 to opposed the southern loop as plans currently exist.

The next meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners will be held Thursday, Nov. 1. A public hearing on the proposed solid waste management ordinance is scheduled at 5 p.m., followed by a 6 p.m. hearing on the proposed sight-seeing helicopter ordinance. (See related story page 2A.) The regular session is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Back to Archive: 10/25/01.