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Sheriff to assume responsibility for transportation of juveniles

The Huntington County Council gave the nod by consensus on Monday, April 28, to Sheriff Terry Stoffel and Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hakes to move $14,480 to pay transportation costs for under-age offenders who are transferred to juvenile secure detention facilities.

Hakes explained that the Cedar Ridge Juvenile Detention Facility, in Muncie, which had provided transportation to its facility for juveniles who are detained, is closing and moving, causing the Huntington County Sheriff's Department to find another facility to send youths who are placed in detention, as well as pay the transportation costs.

Hakes says other facilities in the area were problematic in getting juveniles back to Huntington to attend court dates, among other issues.

"About a week and a half ago I called the sheriff and said, ‘We've got no place to go but you,'" he said. "And so we've been taking the kids to Grant County, but Grant County doesn't transport, and therein lies our problem."

Stoffel calculates that he will need about $21,730 per year to cover the costs, which include $4,830 for 1,380 gallons of fuel to cover the 17,600 miles of estimated travel back and forth from Huntington County to the Grant County detention facility. Stoffel also estimates he'll need an additional 1,300 hours of manpower, amounting to $16,900 annually.

The amount breaks down to a monthly expense of $1,810, making the total needed $14,480 for the remainder of 2014. The figures include travel time, court time and call-outs after hours and on weekends. The Sheriff's Department has a vehicle that can be used for transport so no extra equipment would be needed.

Stoffel says he doesn't have any budget for either the fuel or manpower needed to transport the detainees to the Grant County Juvenile Detention Facility. However, there may be a silver lining in the quandary.

"I will tell you that Grant County is 26 percent cheaper than Cedar Ridge," he told the council. "Basically, I think we can do the transportation aspect of it quite a bit cheaper than what we were paying for it, with a little more work on our end, coordination and keeping a calendar between two departments."

"That's how we used to do it," said Councilman Shane Bickel.

Hakes agreed, adding he hopes to establish a video conferencing program with the Grant County facility for court hearings that would save the county even more money.

Hakes and Stoffel asked for permission to move the money from the Court budget into Stoffel's part-time jail line item to fund the costs. The council agreed in a 7-0 consensus vote.

In other business, councilmen unanimously approved reimbursing the Huntington County Disaster Team, a volunteer group, $625 in gasoline costs, paying the money from the Public Safety LOIT budget.

A request to hire a PC technician in the county's IT Department received approval, bringing the number of personnel in that department to three full-time employees and one part-time employee.

The council also unanimously approved the transfer of $670 from the miscellaneous line item to the phones line item of the Local Emergency Planning Committee budget. Department head Lindsie Goss was not in attendance when the item came under discussion.