By VICKI URBANIK

Plans to purchase additional vehicles for the Porter County Sheriff’s Department have been temporarily put on hold, so that county officials can sort through the funding impact from the state’s recent decision to stop housing its prisoners at the county jail.

Todd Henderson of the PCSD appeared before the Porter County Commissioners this week seeking approval for an additional $50,000 to purchase two vans for jail transport of prisoners. The vans would be added to a larger police car purchase.

The commissioners have the $250,000 for the new police cars set aside in their cumulative capital development fund, but the additional $50,000 requested for the vans would come from the fund that’s generated from fees paid for by state and federal agencies for housing their prisoners at the county jail.

However, at the start of this year, the Indiana Department of Corrections stopped sending its prisoners to the county jail, due to concerns about overcrowding. The lack of state prisoners has alleviated the prisoner crowding, but will result in a loss of about $1 million a year from the fees.

Porter County Commissioner President Robert Harper said because of the loss of the state money, the prisoner fee fund, known as Fund 233, can now only be used to pay utilities at the jail. He suggested putting the vehicle purchase on hold until the commissioners can talk to the Porter County Council about its plans for the jail’s fund.

The Porter County Council will meet this Tuesday.

Henderson said if needed, he could possibly change the vehicle purchase plan so that only the $250,000 is used.

The commissioners did give the sheriff’s department approval to purchase metal detectors for a total of $7,016.

In other matters, the commissioners dealt with two concerns involving county buildings. Maintenance Director Joe Lain proposed purchasing water softeners, saying that the hard water is causing calcium build-up and tearing up the fixtures at the three county buildings that are on Valparaiso city water -- the County Administration Center, the County Courthouse and the Juvenile Services Center. “This water’s terrible,” he said.

Lain said the water softeners will likely cost no more than $30,000.

This matter was put on hold for a few weeks. Harper noted that the DLZ consulting firm is currently conducting a comprehensive evaluation of county buildings and said the water problem should be addressed as part of that study.

The commissioners did give Lain approval to replace windows at the Porter County Animal Shelter, with the cost not to exceed $2,000. The shelter’s 12 basement-style windows are in disrepair, he said. “One has already fallen out,” he said.

In another matter, the commissioners appointed Porter resident Lynanne Moore to a vacancy on the Porter County Animal Welfare Board. She replaces Bonnie Frye, who recently resigned, along with shelter director Sandy Ogle, stemming from an animal neglect case.

Posted 2/21/2008