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Commissioners approve jail funds transfer, inmate checking account

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FARMINGTON – County commissioners approved the transfer of $100,000 out of the jail undesignated fund to allow the Franklin County Detention Center to continue to operate until the end of the fiscal year.

The transfer of funds has been anticipated since the jail first went to full-time service. While local officials have maintained that the jail can operate under the $1.6 million tax cap, Franklin County also had to send a final payment of $315,000 to the Board of Corrections. Without those funds, which Franklin County has regularly submitted to the BOC’s Operational Support Fund since going to a 72-hour holding facility, the county would have a little more than $4,000 remaining in the jail operations budget after the next May payment.

The county does maintain an approximately $400,000 jail undesignated account, comprised of funds saved over the roughly 8 years the jail operated as a holding facility. The $100,000 will allow the jail to operate through the final, 6 weeks of the fiscal year.

The commissioners will review the proposed 2015-16 jail budget at their next meeting.

Jail Administrator Doug Blauvelt also requested permission to utilize a checking account to track prisoner money. When brought to the jail, Blauvelt said, all money inmates had on them was seized. Those funds, as well as money orders sent by family members, could be used to purchase commissary items and was returned to prisoners following their release.

Blauvelt wanted to use a checking account to better track the funds. “This is just for accountability,” Blauvelt said. He noted that the jail already had a checking account for prisoners on work release at job sites, in order to track their pay and deduct room and board costs.

In other business, commissioners approved a rate increase for Franklin County Sheriff’s Office personnel participating in Operation Stonegarden details. The increase, from $30 to $35 an hour, was requested by Stonegarden and will be covered by the federal grant program. The $60 million federal grant program provides support to law enforcement agencies near U.S. borders.

Chief Deputy Steve Lowell said that the rate increase would encourage more deputies to sign up for the 4-hour shifts. It would also simplify billing, he noted, by having one rate for Stonegarden, seatbelt and OUI details. He also requested, and was granted, the ability to have FCSD lieutenants serve on the details.

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