County agrees to deal

Jay County Sheriff’s Office is in the process of updating and sharing its technology to make its work more efficient.
Jay County Commissioners on Monday morning signed an inter-local agreement between Jay County and Portland to allow Portland Police Department and the sheriff’s office to share information using Spillman Software. They also approved use of Jay County Courthouse’s antenna to improve reception for video arraignments.
Portland Board of Works approved the city’s side of the agreement at its Oct. 2 meeting.
Sheriff Ray Newton said the agreement will help save money as well as assist officers in referencing a larger database of information.
It could be up to a year before Portland is outfitted with the program the sheriff’s office has been using for a few years, but it will help the departments to share data related to dispatch and police work, as well as finances as they’ll be sharing the cost of the program. Newton estimated a savings of $40,000.
“All the information you already had from using it the past several years … they’ll be able to link to know … a little bit of information on who they’re investigating,” said commissioner Faron Parr.
Newton also discussed with commissioners a plan to install a satellite dish on top of the courthouse to improve the reception for video arraignments broadcasted from Jay County Jail to the courtroom. The jail has experienced issues with its Comcast connection, and Newton believes using a dish to receive the jail’s antenna reception will serve well in case the system in place goes down.
“We feel like we’re going to have less interruptions if Comcast goes down,” said Newton. “This was the best solution and cheaper.”
The dish will cost no more than $2,000, a fraction of the only other option, which would be to install a fiber optic line. To run fiber optic would cost an estimated $12,000, with a $2,000 annual service fee.
Commissioners Milo Miller Jr., Jim Zimmerman and Parr unanimously approved use of the courthouse’s antenna tower.
The cost will be taken out of the jail’s commissary fund.
In other business, commissioners:
•Approved transferring the county’s health insurance plan to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield from current provider Physicians Health Plan.
Coverage comes with a 5 percent increase, and the new plan will go into effect Jan. 1.
•Heard from highway superintendent Ken Wellman about the possibility of installing cameras on the department’s trucks.
Brigade Electronics representatives approached Wellman about an idea to place cameras on the front and back of the trucks, with a system in place to monitor what the truck does. Miller advised Wellman to get prices on what the installation of the cameras would cost and if it would be possible to test drive the system on one of the county’s trucks.