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Decisions Needed To Be Made on Richardson County Jail Kitchen

By John Nixon

01/08/2016

(KLZA)-- Richardson County Sheriff Don Pounds approached the County Commissioners this week about having a kitchen in the new law enforcement center and jail.

The former National Guard Armory has a kitchen. According to the State Fire Marshall the kitchen is either brought to code for use or torn out. Sheriff Don Pounds told Commissioners the hood would need to come down and the gas service to the kitchen would have to be cut off. Sheriff Pounds said he eventually wants a kitchen in the facility due to the $7 per meal cost for prisoners. Pounds noted that Brown County Kansas is serving meals in their jail at a cost of $2 per meal.

Sheriff Pounds said the contractor believes the facility would need a new vent hood including a new fire extinguishing system, and a new three-basin sink that drains through the floor and not the wall, to meet standards.

The Sheriff believes a person could be hired to oversee the kitchen and that if prisoners from the State Corrections Department are contracted to serve time in the Richardson County Jail, the inmates could do the work as part of their job.

Pounds said he would like to contract with the State of Nebraska to house possibly as many as 20 prisoners in the new 24-bed facility in Falls City.

No decisions were made Tuesday. The Board will be looking for an estimate on what it will cost to have the kitchen area brought up to standards.

Later in the discussion Sheriff Pounds told the Board he had received a letter from Falls City Police Chief Duane Armbruster that as of December 14th, Falls City Police Officers will no longer be available to work part-time for the Sheriff’s Department. In addition, further patrol rifle and range instruction by Police Department Personnel has been discontinued.

Armbruster told MSC News Thursday the decision was made because there are currently two Falls City officers gone to the Nebraska State Patrol Law Enforcement Training Center in Grand Island earning their certification. That leaves the Department shorthanded creating overtime issues.

The letter said that currently this is the best course of action for the Falls City Police Department.

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