By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
MOUNT VERNON — Work change orders typically mean an increase in expenses, so the county commissioners were happy to sign a work order on Thursday acknowledging that a project came in under budget.
A change order on the Wally Road improvement project was $36,489 less than anticipated, bringing the cost down to $712,347.
Also on Thursday, Knox County David Shaffer told the commissioners that he is ready to start updating cameras in the Knox County Jail. To control costs, “We are going to do as much as we can on our own,” he said. “We’ll transition from the analog cameras that we had to digital. Digital cameras have higher resolution and a wider field of view, so they might cover more area than we do now.”
The booking and visitation areas are the first areas to get the digital cameras. Eventually all of the cameras will be replaced.
Officials from the Bureau of Adult Detention, a division of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, inspected the jail on Wednesday. “It is quite involved,” Shaffer said of the onsite visit, which included testing the backup generator and lighting as well as inspecting the jail itself. Shaffer also filed copies of staff protocols online as part of the inspection process.
The jail population remains consistent at 95. Sixteen are female and 79 male. None of the current inmates are federal or from Lawrence County.
Shaffer reported that everything is working well with the Centerburg School Resource Officer. The SRO will begin formal programming, which allows the sheriff’s office to apply for funding through the DARE program. The grant pays 50 percent of the SRO’s salary. When school is not in session, the SRO works as a patrol officer.