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| Sheriff’s View #11 for March 8 to 12, 2010 |
By: Sheriff J.B. King
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Posted: Saturday, March 6, 2010 3:24 pm
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Sheriff J.B. King
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Welcome aboard on a great day in the Ozark highlands. A lot of sun, the temp is mild and even better, the temperature numbers that are headed our way are looking good. This message was not brought to you by the National Weather Service, but the weather will in fact be our first topic of the day.
This past week, the National Weather Service office in Springfield sent an instructor to Waynesville to teach the annual weather spotter class. For the most part, our brothers in the fire service were the main folks who attended the class. There were a number of law enforcement officers in the room from the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office and the Crocker Police Department. The topic of severe weather and tornadoes can get a bit complex, and once again, we went through the types of storms, wind shear, and a host of other topics that we viewed from the perceptive of the National Weather Service. After all, the class was designed to teach us what the weather service needs to hear in order to accurately predict the severe weather and issue tornado warnings and so forth. I suspect there may be more public information on this class released in the near future because the Waynesville Daily Guide editor, DawnDee Bostwick, was seated next to me and was recording a bunch of notes on this class.
While we are on the topic of tornadoes, I think my office got hit by one this past week. All week long, it was the cell phone in one ear, office phone in the other ear; one person seated in front of me and one more knocking on the door. Meanwhile, I was late for a meeting and five e-mails were waiting for a response. If by chance you tried to contact me or did contact me this past week and I did not respond back then please try again because I am sure I have forgotten all about your call. It was a hectic week and I hope next week in much calmer.
On Monday of this past week, I drove to Springfield to meet with officials from the Missouri Department of Transportation to go over the 2011 year grant applications. They were not sure if the recent cutback in federal traffic safety money that forced the reduction in our current grant would continue to be a problem for the future grants. Their message was to apply for the grants as you usually would, and they would cross the funding bridge when that time arrives. In short, who knows for sure? However, there should be some money for equipment and overtime traffic work in the future.
After the MoDOT meeting, I went to the Springfield office of the Drug Enforcement Agency office and delivered some reports to them on a recent case. We had a discussion on some other issues and after a short period of time I left the DEA office. I then went to the office of our attorney, who has been assigned to us by our county insurance carrier to discuss a lawsuit case. The issue with the lawsuit had suddenly jumped up and I arrived at the office without an appointment. With our present attorney, the lack of an appointment is not a big deal; he will work me in as soon as he can and take care of business. The big question is whether or not he is in the office that day. If he is not there, then of course you do not see him, but since I was already in Springfield, the extra drive to his office was a good gamble. It was a winning gamble because he was there and after a short wait we took care of business.
On Wednesday, the Board of Directors of the Pulaski County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund once again came to my rescue with a $3,000 check to assist me in the purchase of another patrol car. We were able to buy a 2006 Ford with 81,000 miles for only $4,910. The salesman was unhappy that he had to point out that the car had body damage to the rear bumper and large paint chips missing on the rear truck lid area. He told me he would send me photographs of the damage and if I needed to pass on the car due to the damage, he understood. After looking at the photographs, Tom and I had a small laugh because the damage looked exactly the same as the damage on at least four of our current patrol cars parked in front of the office right now. The biggest paint spot was about the size of a large orange and was located on the passenger side rear of the car right above the upper side of the trunk lid. The Ford company must have had a paint problem with their cars because we have several other cars with the same orange size spot in the same location. In any event, we got a 2006 Ford Interceptor with only 81,000 miles for under $5,000!!! I hope I can find a few more of these cars.
Our current calls for service/case number count stands at 1,551 today. Our jail list had 50 names on the roster. The good news is that we are only spending $700 of our tax dollars today for inmate board outside of Pulaski County.
Speaking of jails, on March 22 at 9:30 a.m., there will be a presentation to the Pulaski County Commission by the GS&M Company on our future ability to build a 124-bed jail with or without a tax increase. This presentation is designed to simply supply information to the commissioners about the several ways that a jail could be built. In any event, the meeting is open to the public and you are invited to attend. There will be a media briefing session after the commission presentation.
Once again, it is time to tell you to drive safe and to stay legal because we do not want your body in our jail, but if your life’s ambition is to spend a few days in the Pulaski County Jail, then come on down and enjoy the bright lights in our jail!
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