Council OKs maintenance funds

Jay County Jail’s expansion isn’t new anymore.

With that age has come ever-increasing maintenance costs.

Jay County Council on Wednesday approved nearly $48,000 in funding to help cover the jail maintenance contract, costs already incurred and potential expenditures through the rest of the year.

Council members also discussed plans for Jay Emergency Medical Service and agreed to provide funds for the WorkKeys test for Jay County High School juniors.

Sheriff Dwane Ford came to council requesting that it affirm a Jay County Commissioners decision to cover some of the jail maintenance costs with money from the infrastructure fund and asking for an additional $25,000 to be appropriated to cover any maintenance costs that may come up over the next three-and-a-half months.

After some discussion about whether to appropriate additional funds in advance or wait until the need arises, council split the difference. It OK’d the commissioners’ decision to pay a $29,124 invoice for maintenance from Fort Wayne-based Havel and its $6,375 service contract for the fourth quarter of the year from the infrastructure fund. It also approved $12,500, half of what had been requested, from the infrastructure fund for future maintenance needs this year.

After the meeting, Ford said the bulk of the issues have been with the facility’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.

“That’s about 95 percent of it,” he said.

The county completed the $7.32-million jail expansion and renovation in 2011 and has seen maintenance costs spike in recent years.

Council also got a financial update from Jay Emergency Medical Service director Eric Moore that shows revenue has started to pick up. Because of a gap in billing when the service shifted to external firm Accumed, collections were just $17,975 in April and less than $10,000 in May, June and July. (The average had been nearly $62,000 over the first three months of the year.)

But revenue from bills sent by Accumed started to come in last month, with August collections totaling $123,019. Moore said he should have a better idea of what steady income JEMS can expect as numbers come in over the next few months.

Moore also noted plans to fill an open EMT position to allow John McFarland to make the switch to being a trainer — he will teach JEMS employees as well as offering courses through Jay County High School and John Jay Center for Learning. Moore said he hopes to have those programs in place early in 2018.