VIENNA — The Maries County Sheriff’s Office has implemented a new procedure that mothers with a bunch of hungry kids have known for a long time. This is that it’s better and less expensive to cook meals at home than it is to buy already prepared meals. 

The sheriff’s office recently converted dispatcher Karla Mierkey, St. James, to a dedicated jailer/corrections officer. She is a jailer with other responsibilities such as meal preparation, doing all of the jail’s laundry, providing hygiene and cleaning supplies for the inmates and some light cleaning.

Sheriff’s Deputy Major Scott John said this is a change from how the sheriff’s office has done things in the past. They created this new position in the department and it is working very well. It has freed up the dispatchers from having to feed jail inmates and take care of the other inmate needs. While Mierkey is there, the dispatchers only need to concentrate on their 911 Dispatch Center duties.

John said a usual day was dispatchers serving a microwavable breakfast bowl or breakfast sandwich in the morning, making lunchmeat sandwiches or lunch, and then microwave Hungryman dinners for supper. The dispatchers having to make sandwiches during lunch and microwave dinners for supper took quite a bit of time.

Now, with Mierkey taking over the inmate duties, She is making their breakfast, lunch and sandwiches for supper before she goes home for the day. “Purchasing frozen prepared sandwiches and meals came at an expense, but it was much easier than cooking,” John said. “However, the cooking of meals in-house provides a substantial cost savings.” He said depending on the number of inmates in custody determines the actual cost savings. On average, the sheriff’s department is saving around $7 a day per inmate. The department averages about 20 inmates per day in the past year. Based on that, John said the annual cost savings is going to be around $51,100. “That’s enough to cover Karla’s salary and any anticipated costs in equipment needs after the initial investment was made,” he said.

Now, Mierkey is preparing meals from the kitchen area in the sheriff’s office. For breakfast the inmates might get biscuits and gravy or eggs and sausage. For lunch the inmates get the biggest meal of the day. Meals include spaghetti, lasagna, chicken, broccoli and rice, and more. The noon meals are all served with a vegetable, a fruit cup and bread. John said they have a menu of seven meals they rotate and with winter coming they may substitute some of them for chili or soup.

For dinner, inmates get a bologna and cheese sandwich with a side. Mierkey makes these sandwiches before she leaves for the day. The dispatchers only have to get them out of the refrigerator to pass them out to the inmates in the jail. 

John said the inmates like the new menu as the food is good. And it is saving money. But he sees the largest benefit of this change is the reduced workload of the department’s 911 dispatchers. During lunch they can focus on the operations of the communications center and instead of going back and forth to the microwaves for one to two hours during the evening commute, they are focused on any 911 calls or radio traffic of the sheriff’s deputies.

In the end, he said the cost savings is absorbed by the new position created for Mierkey. But, John said, “We have a much more focused 911 communications center.” Once the training is completed for the new dispatchers and the new dispatching system has the bugs worked out, “We will be much more prepared than we were,” he said.

Chevy Truck

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman said he spoke with Alex Haller of Haller Automotive who has agreed to remove the police equipment from the trash patrol truck the county is selling. It has been advertised for sale and some prospective bidders have come forward to look at the truck. It is a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado, two door, 4WD, long bed with 48,000 miles. It’s white in color and has been parked at the courthouse. The commissioners plan to open the bids on Oct. 17. 

Accepted

Treasurer Rhonda Slone said she and IT Manager Shane Sweno worked again to make some progress to get the remainder of Maries County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money. It’s $800,000 they’ve been trying to get into the county’s bank account for several months.

Slone said what they did recently said it was “accepted.” She’s hopeful they have achieved what they needed to and she has been checking the county’s bank account for the money.

Last week the commissioners received correspondence that Maries County is one of 11 Missouri counties and cities still waiting on the second tranche of ARPA funding. The General Services Administration released information to support counties through this process. 

Training Waiver

The county received a letter from the Missouri Sheriff’s Association stating Sheriff Chris Heitman was one of five Missouri sheriffs who had received a waiver of the required annual training hours for 2022. Sheriff Heitman had 7.5 of the required at least 20 training hours. The training relates to operations of the sheriff’s office. It was reported Sheriff Heitman does a lot of training for the association and this counts as part of his hours.

Mini-Split

A representative of Rehagen Heating and Cooling looked at an old, malfunctioning air conditioning unit at the courthouse and gave the commissioners some specifications about replacing it. The representative gave them two options. One is to put it back the way it is, which will require an electrician to run 220 to it. The second option is to start over and use a mini split heat pump. A mini split is a ductless heating and cooling system that can regulate the temperature in individual rooms or spaces as opposed to the traditional central air system. 

Stratman said with the mini split lines can come off of the three rooms that old air conditioning unit cooled. It will give them more options as the system to any room can be turned off when not being used. 

Stratman called the representative and was told there should not be an issue with the unit and it won’t require more power to it. It heats also. The representative said they may see as much as a 30 percent reduction in energy use. Stratman told him because of the prices being over $6,000, the county is required to bid out the job of replacing it. 

The commissioners like the mini split and will advertise it for bidding in the newspaper. The specifications are available at the county clerk’s office. The bids will be opened Nov. 21. Rehagen will bid on it. 

Extension Office

Christy Metzger, who works in the University Extension Office in the courthouse, stepped into the meeting briefly to get Stratman’s signature on some Extension business, said they finally had someone who signed up for programming by the Missouri Work Force in Rolla. The individual did a zoom meeting from the Extension office with the Rolla office and also will get some help with resume writing.

She was pleased to report this as the Extension office is trying to offer people in the community this programming.