Purchase of county Tasers OK'd (6/14/04)

Jay County police will soon have another weapon to choose from when facing an unruly or aggressive person.

Jay County Commissioners approved the purchase this morning of nine Taser weapons for the Jay County Sheriff’s Department.

The weapons, which will cost a total of about $7,500, work by shooting two small probes that lodge in a person’s skin or clothing and delivering 50,000 volts of electricity. The charge tightens the muscles of the person who is shot, making it impossible to move.

Two of the county’s nine road officers currently are certified and carry Tasers. The new models Sheriff Todd Penrod plans to purchase are smaller and less conspicuous on the officer’s belt.

Commissioners Mike Leonhard, Gary Theurer and Milo Miller Jr. asked Penrod several questions regarding the safety and potential liability issues.

“Taser has never caused a death,” Penrod said, noting that his research has shown that any deaths related to use of a Taser have had an underlying cause related to the person’s health.

“The training says the injuries occur when they fall because they’re tightened up,” Penrod said.

Miller said he wanted his concerns alleviated because “we have enough tort claims.”

“This is trying to prevent tort claims. This is an alternative to using lethal force,” Penrod said.

Each officer will be trained in the use of the weapon, and operating procedures will be developed governing use of the Tasers. Each officer is required to take a shock from the weapon before being allowed to carry a Taser.

Also this morning, the commissioners briefly reviewed and discussed the drainage plans for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Portland.

Drainage issues could be one of the hurdles for Wal-Mart to clear in the project, which would see a 155,000-square foot grocery/discount store constructed on the northeast cor- (Continued on page 8)

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ner of West Votaw Street and Industrial Park Drive, just west of Jay County Hospital and Heritage Commons.

The land is already zoned highway service, which would allow the operation of a supercenter.

No representative from Wal-Mart was present this morning as the commissioners met as the county drainage board.

Jay County surveyor Brad Daniels showed copies of the drainage plans to the commissioners, who expressed some concerns about some of the plans.

The main feature of the drainage plans for the new Wal-Mart is an approximately 10-foot deep retention area that will be located on the north side of the new store. That area would be drained by pumping water onto the surface to the north and west of the store.

That water would eventually soak into the ground or run on the surface to a side ditch along Industrial Park Drive and into the Sipe-Wehrly Ditch.

Theurer said he and his fellow commissioners would like to discuss that and several other concerns with a representative from Carlson Consulting Engineers, which is representing Wal-Mart.

“We need to have them up here and hash it out,” Theurer said.

Before the Wal-Mart discussion began, Robert Snyder, who owns a condominium at Heritage Commons just east of the proposed new Wal-Mart, complimented Daniels for his help in solving a drainage problem at the site. Daniels said a tile that drains the area was cut off at an angle where it empties into the Wehrly Ditch.

Snyder said that despite heavy rains Friday and Sunday, there were no drainage issues in the area of the condos.

A county tile will have to be re-routed around the proposed building. That work will be paid for by Wal-Mart.

In another drainage matter, the commissioners discussed two tiling projects with Ken Brunswick, a representative of the Friends of the Limberlost organization.

In both cases, the goals of the project would be to add more surface water to land owned by the group while still maintaining drainage for neighbors.

Brunswick said the group would like to install solid tile instead of perforated for the D.B. Ford Tile, located in the Limberlost Watershed in section 4 of Bearcreek Township.

The tile runs from county road 900 North southwest toward Limberlost Creek.

A bird sanctuary run by Friends of the Limberlost is located on the north side of the creek and includes about 1,000 feet of the D.B. Ford Tile. Putting in solid tile would prevent some of the water on the group’s land from draining, helping towards a goal of creating wetlands.

Brunswick said the planned installation of a four- or six-inch tile in the Loblolly Marsh Wetland Preserve would reroute some water out of the Rupel Ditch and divert it onto land at the preserve, is located on both sides of county road 250 West north of Ind. 18.[[In-content Ad]]