Walker County Commissioner Keith Davis praised Sheriff Nick Smith for efforts to raise funds and make savings to the overall county budget, as Smith prepared to take over the food service at the Walker County Jail.
The discussion during a four-hour work session on Monday, Sept. 12, on the county budgets.
Smith said as food vendor Summit has understood officials are not pleased with its food service at the jail, it was pulling out by the end of the month. Smith, who had been planning to direct the food service in-house, said plans are being made to take over the kitchen by Oct. 1. The Cullman Sheriff's Office, which also handles its own food service, will loan out its food official for several weeks to get the local program started.
Some upstart expenses will be needed, as Smith said some of the appliances date back to when the jail was constructed.
Davis praised Smith for his work not just on law enforcement but also on federal inmates and the food service, which he said would bring in more funding and savings.
"We have a proactive sheriff," he said, saying he had been through three sheriffs. He said he had never known a sheriff "who knows their budget as well as Nick Smith knows his budget." He said he and Smith talks several times each week on his budget.
Smith said he is hopeful of increasing the rate of pay for federal inmates from $45 to $60 a day under a new contract. A new Homeland Security contract for holding immigrants in several months should also soon generate another $800,000.
The food program at the jail has a $400,000 expenditure impact on the General Fund budget, Dickerson said, with $180,000 a year revenue coming from it.
Smith said he has also discovered the county is supposed to pay $5 a day to feed federal inmates. "Oh, wow," Dickerson said. "That's a big difference."
Davis estimated that savings and income from the federal inmates and savings from food could bring in $2 million in revenue. "That is a huge deal, period," he said, saying Smith thinks outside the box and has good contacts. He added the catastrophic insurance also will help the county in budgeting to protect against inmate medical expenses. Dickerson noted the one drawback is that it involves the county being reimbursed later.
Smith later said at the jail new toilets - usually $3,000 each - were needed, as well as an updated intercom system for prisoners in distress to communicate in lockdown. After some maintenance, all but two of the toilets are now working, Miller said.
District 3 Commissioner Jim Borden said Smith was over budget, but Smith said a number of budget amendments have not been made yet, including more-than-expected revenue from federal inmates. He also pointed to healthcare costs for inmates. He and Dickerson said this had all been reviewed before.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up