NORWICH – The county board last week authorized an extra $132,000 for 2011 expenses at the Chenango County Public Safety Facility that weren’t previously budgeted.
A county contingency fund will be tapped to pay for maintenance needed at the sheriff’s office and jail, which officially opened on Upper Ravine Road in the Town of Norwich in 2007. About $50,000 will be spent to repave the parking lot, purchase a new dishwasher for the kitchen and to replace three electronic locks that no longer work. For additional fringe and medical costs incurred last year, lawmakers will turn to sales tax collections. A dedicated 1 percent supports jail operations, maintenance, labor and the 911 emergency communications tower system.
Lawmakers who sit on the county’s Finance Committee previously made the distinction between the two funding streams. Finance Vice Chairman Dennis Brown, D-Pharasalia, said the specific maintenance costs should have been included in the 2012 budget, so taking the funds from county contingency was “more transparent.”
Prior to approving the expenditures, Supervisor Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, pulled the proposals for further discussion. He asked why new locks were needed at the facility. Sheriff Ernest Cutting said the company that made the original locks is no longer in business and that another company is retrofitting the replacements.
Flanagan said it was unclear what portion of the $7,900 additional amount for medical services at the jail was budgeted in 2011. He also asked whether inmates boarded in from other counties were responsible for the overage.
“I’m trying to find out how much on average we are spending per prisoner for their medical expenses,” he said.
Cutting said he would be able to provide Flanagan with further details at a later date, but explained that all medical expenses from boarders are billed back to the counties from where they came. He said the institution itself qualifies for a more advantageous Medicaid rate when covering its own county’s inmates’ medical treatments, but the inmates themselves lose Medicaid coverage once incarcerated.
Clerk of the Board RC Woodford confirmed that last year’s medical expenses at the jail exceeded budget.
Flanagan also requested a cost for utilities at the jail. He pointed to lower natural gas prices. While gas prices have fallen by as much as 50 percent, Woodford said the bottom line for utilities wouldn’t be down, respectively.
Also at its monthly meeting, the board authorized transferring $9,000 within the facility’s 2011 budget to reconcile personnel services that were delivered on Dec. 31, the first workday of the first payroll week of 2012.