| Sheriff’s View #27 for June 29 to July 3, 2009 |
By: Sheriff J.B. King
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Posted: Saturday, June 27, 2009 8:32 pm
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Sheriff J.B. King
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Welcome aboard for one more news column that will appear in our local papers in time to mark the 146th anniversary of the great American Civil War battle at Gettysburg on July 1 to 3, 1863.
I realize that this has nothing to do with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Department but it was also very hot at Gettysburg during the battle. I might add that I did the same thing in last year's column by mentioning the battle of Gettysburg.
I do not have any long information to pass on today, but I do have a series of short news flashes. Our inmate count on Friday was 62. The case number/call for service count was 4,620 today. I checked the numbers for last year and our slight downward call volume trend has now improved to 619 fewer calls than last year. We do hope this downward trend continues.
I saw a letter to the editor in the Waynesville Daily Guide this week that referenced the problems we have with dog call issues. The writer was concerned about the lack of a dog holding center for Pulaski County and dog control in general. The Revised Statutes of Missouri, section 322.090, gives the Pulaski County Commission the authority to pass local ordinances to deal with these dog issues. Several years ago I went before the County Commission and presented this information. The basic answer at that time was that Pulaski County did not have the needed money to take on such a job. The situation has not changed; in fact, the money supply is even worse these days. Bottom line, there will be no change in these dog issues until Pulaski County sharply increases the available revenue that can be spent on new programs.
The Pulaski County Commission this past week passed a resolution to allow the Sheriff's Department to donate a used ambulance to the American Red Cross. For quite some time now, we have not used the ambulance unit in question and we saw no point in letting it go to waste, so we proposed this donation a few months ago. The commissioners felt they needed a legal opinion that the county could pass on the ambulance before they acted and they received that opinion this past week. We will complete the transfer paperwork early next week.
We had one deputy leave our employ on June 26. The issue was of a private nature and we will not comment on the reason for the departure. We have also been notified that we will lose another deputy on July 10. The issues here are also more of a private nature dealing with family but I believe I can say the deputy has been given a deal he cannot pass up. We will miss both deputies.
I was notified on Thursday that the Commissioners have decided not to move on the financial grant for $14,246, so I am once again working on the task of going after this grant. I need to hustle because the deadline date is July 9.
Speaking of grants, the young employee that was sent to us by the local work connections program is doing a very fine job for us and we are slowly knocking back the past-due validations that we were concerned about. We now know that the other five grants we have up for review will probably not be decided upon until late July or early August of this year. The COPS grant for the two new deputies will be especially hard to win. We received e-mail this past week telling us they had $8.5 billion in funding requests for this grant and only $1 billion in federal funding to handle the grant. There will be a lot of disappointed people when the feds make their selections known on this grant.
One of the jobs we do every day is deal with the needs of our inmates. On Saturday, June 27, we had a special situation develop where an inmate needed a walker or a wheelchair to assist in moving around. The courthouse wheelchair was locked up behind a metal guard and we could not get to the wheelchair. Capt. Anderson got on the phone and within a short time he had secured the donation of a walker device for the inmate's use. I would like to issue a special thank you to Lenny and Sherry Sharp for this donation.
Once again, I believe that I am at the end of another column. I would ask that all of you drive with care this week. I would also ask that you keep your actions legal and stay out of our jail. But as I have said before, if you must visit us, the lights are on.
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