South Gibson Star-Times

A-2 Front Tuesday, March 19, 2019 South Gibson Star-Times COUNCIL Continued from page 1 staff is currently two short from their approved num- ber; recently an officer was hired away from the jail to Mount Vernon. Hiring is a two-month process, and if prospec- tive hires do not pass the hiring test, sometimes the search has to start over. The office is looking at whether those require- ments are too rigorous. Commissioner Steve Bottoms was a proponent of immediately hiring more jailers. "It's the only thing that we can do that can be do- ne right now, is hiring jail- ers. So we request the six jailers...we request you im- mediately allow us to start that process," he said to the county council, add- ing that between some military obligations, inju- ries and illness, it can be difficult to cover staffing the jail. "That doesn't solve any of our problems with toi- lets or beds," said South Gibson Councilman Jere- my Overton. "I've asked re- peatedly about the cost as- sociated with it, but have you looked into housing inmates at a neighboring county's facility? " Councilman Craig Pflug agreed. "That solves the prob- lem immediately...It gets us out of the predicament," he said. Commissioner Bottoms said that would mean turn- ing down the $ 35 per day the county receives for their level six inmates. According to the coun- cil, however, hiring six more jailers would come out to around $450,000. "Tell me we've got a plan for the building to address the other issues," Pflug said. "Get us in compliance and then work on the build- ing needs." "We're the only ones that have taken steps to improve this process," said Councilman Derek McGraw. "We are taking steps to improve and we're not getting credit for that. I've read your report. Nine- ty-five percent of that law- suit is overcrowding. That has nothing to do, there's nothing on understaffing." The right plan for the building may solve staff- ing issues and alleviate a need for more jailers, at which point he said they'd be looking at laying off six people. Pflug was concerned about the immediate need to get into compliance. "It seems like it's go- ing to take months to hire more jailers. To get in com- pliance, we need to house them somewhere else," said Pflug, "for the safety of the employees." Bottoms pushed more employees as a way to show progress in upcom- ing legal proceedings. "I think when we go to court...they know we can't build a jail tomorrow," Bot- toms said. "You said they don't ex- pect us to do the impos- sible, but we don't have $450,000 sitting around to hire six employees. That's the impossible. Or we'd do it right now," Pflug said. Councilman Bill Mc- Connell talked about the state-level discussion of in- creasing the per diem for prisoners. "Why can't this be taken care of temporarily...I've been told it wouldn't mat- ter if we gave approval to hire 100 people, you're not going to get the peo- ple to do it. The last two you hired have left. So what do we do here...to solve this problem at least temporarily? " McConnell asked, adding the problem is statewide. "We haven't seen anything come for- ward that looks like it's go- ing to take care of this sit- uation for awhile." Bottoms said commis- sioners are looking for a plan that will fix the jail fa- cilities. He said he hasn't talked to neighboring counties about moving prisoners, citing potential transport issues. Storm downs lines, sends students to safe rooms NOA A issued a tornado watch from 1:04 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 14 as a storm swept through the region, though luckily a tornado did not materialize in Gib- son County. Duke Energy, however, did have more than 13,000 cus- tomers affected by nearly 600 power outages, a number that dropped to less than half that by noon Friday. Outages locally included Owensville and Princeton. In South Gibson Schools, students were moved to safe areas or safe rooms. Haub- stadt Community School stu- dents on a field trip to the Vic- tory Theater came through safe, and afternoon pre- school was cancelled in Ow- ensville. Power suddenly went out for some residents of Owensville at 2:30 p.m. on March 14. A large tree fell on the corner of Elm and Brummitt streets, broke a power line pole, and partially blocked eastbound traffic on Brummitt Street. On March 14, winds reached 50 mph and tornado sirens blared as a large front passed over the region. The storm left downed power lines, flooding, and damage from winds and tornadoes. Photo courtesy James Walson. Freshmen Halle Humbaugh, Carmen Hasenour and Hillary Humbaugh check their phones during the storm that forced students into safe rooms in South Gibson Thursday. Photo courtesy Jared Grigsby.

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