| Sheriff’s View #31 for July 27 to 31, 2009 |
By: Sheriff J.B. King
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Posted: Saturday, July 25, 2009 7:49 pm
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Sheriff J.B. King
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Welcome aboard for another trip through Pulaski County with the men and women of the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office. I am composing this column on Saturday, July 25. I returned from the Old Settler’s Day event in the Waynesville City Park a few hours ago and one of the perks of the day was the chance to speak to a lot of our citizens. One of the topics that I heard about several times was that the Waynesville Daily Guide did not carry my column last week.
I think that I sent the column out but the Waynesville Daily Guide did not run the column so I am starting to suspect that I did something silly like write the column and fail to send it out. If so, that makes twice this year that I have done that. The column is routinely carried by a number of sources including both of our local web sites so if you have a computer with internet access, you can find the column. The question that I now have is, “Am I going toward that time in life when I can hide my own Easter eggs and still be surprised when I find them?”
I do know that column number 30 was mislabeled as to the date (I put July 27 to 31, 2009, the same as this week’s column) so I am starting to think I messed up for sure. I will double my efforts to make sure this column sees print.
The news from the grant front is mixed. The good news is that it appears that we have successfully accepted the award of the grant that was given to us on July 10. The acceptance of an award requires several steps to be taken through the federal grant management (GMS) system. We now have $58,610 worth of new equipment that we can purchase. The bad news is that we are shown as past due on the grant reporting requirements. We seem to be missing the grant report for 3-1-09 to 3-31-09. When I go to the grant management system to complete the past due report I find only a “view” tab on the grant report page which will not allow me add information. I have sent in several requests for an “update” tab to be placed on the grant so I can complete the report.
I must confess that this is going to be interesting when I try to file reports on what we have spent for this grant, especially when you remember that we just received the grant on July 10. For that matter, the deadline for applying for this grant was sometime in late May of this year. The reports for May and June are not yet due. So if reading this explanation confuses you then welcome to the club. But you might be happy to know that this coming Monday afternoon (July 27) I am scheduled to join a live nationwide internet training session to learn how to complete the reports that are past due from a time frame before we got the grant.
This past week was great. I spent the time from Sunday through Thursday at the summer Missouri Sheriffs’ Association training conference in Branson. I could say that I had a lot of fun, but it would be a small lie. I was in class and the wife was shopping. The training session was held in the Hilton Convention Center, which is next door to the new Branson landing area. I managed to make it there one time for about three hours during the entire week. My credit card, however, spent a whole lot more time throughout the landing area.
One of the classes we had exposed us to the dark side of dog fighting. I know that the Michael Vick case generated a lot of publicity nationwide on this issue, but I had never had any formal training on this crime. Bluntly said, I did not like what I learned. This is a real nasty crime with a lot of other criminal implications. The unfortunate side of this training is now that I have some idea of what to look for I realize that I have seen dog fighting training equipment during past years in our county. If any readers have information on this crime you may leave a message at 774-4790.
I know that in past columns I have explained that there is a Missouri law on the books that requires the sheriff of each county to acquire twenty hours of special training mandated by the Missouri Sheriffs’ Association each year. If you fail to attend the training, the county clerk is required to withhold $2,000 from your yearly salary. In other words, sit down, shut up, and enjoy the class.
I know that I promised more information on the midpoint of the year budget figures but frankly when I got back to work on Friday, I had a number of rush situations to catch up on so I am going to have to pass one more time on the budget info. The short version is that past years have been worse.
Once again I seem to be out of space and I will close out today with a request that all of you please drive with care. Please keep your actions legal, because we do not need to clog the jail with new people. But if you must visit, the lights are on.
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