A week ago Allen County commissioners wondered why sheriff department vehicles were parked for several days outside the dispatch center, 410 N. State.
Tuesday morning Sheriff Tom Williams toyed with commissioners, mentioning several wry reasons including it was part of a shell game to confuse the public about how many vehicles the department had.
“The real reason is that Bill King’s Public Works Department was resurfacing the parking lot outside the sheriff’s office and we were asked to move them,” Williams said.
The concern gave the sheriff opportunity to answer the question that surfaces occasionally about the number of vehicles in his department.
“The answers revolve around common sense and hard data from case studies,” he said.
Three departments operating out of the law enforcement center have 14 vehicles — 10 for the sheriff’s department, one for corrections (jail), one for the sheriff’s reserve unit and two for emergency management.
“Eight of the sheriff’s vehicles are assigned to individuals, two are for deputy positions, approved by commissioners, that have remained unfilled to hold down costs,” Williams wrote in a explanation given commissioners. “One eventually will be filled, the other won’t during my term,” which expires in January.
The corrections vehicle and one unassigned are used for prisoner transfers, and other tasks associated with the jail.
The reserve unit vehicle, a 2004 pickup truck, was rotated out of deputy use and is used for special events and transport for security details.
The two emergency management vehicles are one used for day-to-day operations and a retired ambulance used by emergency responders.
Williams said there were many valid and logical reasons why each officer had a vehicle, including such things as operational mobility and flexibility, effective emergency and critical incident response and personal accountability.
Vehicles used by officers are pickup trucks and utility vehicles, all of which are capable of responding to calls in severe weather, including snow and ice, and over terrain that would be difficult for conventional police automobiles to negotiate, Williams said.
COMMISSIONERS approved a payment of $390,599 to Murray Company, the hospital’s prime contractor. County Counselor Alan Weber said the payment was for completing earthwork and purchase of steel.
The county will pay $125 to renew for a year a license for the radio repeater tower at LaHarpe. The tower permits better emergency radio coverage of the county for alerting fire departments and dispatching law enforcement officers.
Three trees on the courthouse lawn will be removed because of disease and damage that make them potential threats to people who might be nearby. A large limb from one along the east side of the lawn split off and fell to the ground last month. Another has a fracture that permits “you to see light from one side to another,” said Ron Holman, maintenance supervisor.
