The Tri-County Community Corrections Board met in the Polk County Justice Center on Monday morning for their Regular Board meeting.
The meeting began with the approval of the monthly statistics review and a Northwest Regional Corrections Center (NWRCC) Statistics Update from November 2021 to May. Executive Director Andrew Larson reported that Controlled Substances, DUIs, and Probation Violations were the most common arrests they had for the month of April, which is about average for this time of year. He then reported that he would be meeting with Social Services to be discussing the needs and staff needs for their Transition Program with them. He finished by reporting that the STS Program did recent cleanings of the highways, inside the Crookston Sports Center, and City Park.
The Board then received a Personnel update from Director Larson, who explained that Ashley Carl had become a full-time Corrections Officer as of April 25, while Corrections Officer Richard Wolf, and Youth Counselor Dianne Boyum gave their retirement notices and will not return when the Housing Unit reopens, which the Board approved unanimously. He also reported that they had conducted 36 interviews and 31 background checks, with five being ruled out, 18 were accepted, and six officers were still in training, with 3-4 of them finishing it by next month.
Director Larson then gave an update on the NWRCC’s Housing Unit Reopening. He believes that they are in a good position staffing-wise now and are in great shape compared to other County jails and requested the Board to increase the Unit’s capacity back to 200 inmates. “Since December of 2021, we’ve been operating at a reduced compacity due to staffing shortages in the jail. We’ve finally gotten enough people hired, and they’re far enough along in the training process that I brought a plan to the Board to return our license compacity back to 200 inmates, which is what we’ve been operating at for most of the time since we opened this facility back in 2008,” Executive Director Andrew Larson explained. “Beginning on June 8, we’re going to open up that other housing unit and return our compacity back to 200 inmates,” he added. Larson explained that their Beta Housing Unit is currently closed while some of the staff is finishing training, but when the staff is ready, they will reopen the 60-bed housing unit to bring them back to their full 200-person center.
The Board then discussed the Internal Audit Report for the First Quarter of 2022. Deputy Director Paul Bissonette explained that they were down in terms of revenue but were expecting such for closing one of the Housing Units and having to move so many of their paying inmates out of them. He then explained that the ARPA Funds coming to them (roughly $140,000) will be given to them in the next quarter of the year and will help offset some of the revenue loss in the jails. Finally, Bissonette explained that there was a leak in the roof of the Red River Valley Juvenile Center (RRVJC) that they had to fix before the builders could continue with any Sheetrocking or other foundation building for it, which will take about a month. Besides that, he mentioned that the building funds for the Housing Units and Juvenile Center are where they need to be for the repairs. The Board approved the report unanimously.
The Board then discussed renewing a Service Contract with Docu Shred Inc. for another five years for their services starting on June 1 and being in effect until May 31, 2027. Though Larson noted that there would be some price changes in the plan, raising from $20 to $35 on their first bin and from $15 to $20 for each subsequent bin. The Board approved the contract unanimously.
The Board then heard a few Miscellaneous items, such as a recap of Correctional Officers Week that took place last week, from May 1 to the 7, from Jail Administrator Joey Pederson, to recognize and thank the staff for their services. Pederson reported that they had celebration grill-outs four times that week for each of the individual departments, where they gifted the Officers with Grab Bags and Gift Cards from the contracted services they’ve worked with. They then received an update from Director Larson on the Red River Valley Juvenile Center (RRVJC) Project, who explained that the timeline the contractor gave them is on time for its completion for the end of October. “All in all, I think the progress on the Juvenile Center is going well, as well as can be expected. They’ve gotten almost all of the old Conduit and HVAC demolition completed. They’ve gotten a lot of framing done, and we had already had some issues with plumbing, so they were able to break up the concrete, redirect some plumbing rough-ins, and get some new concrete poured in. Now they’ve gotten the vast majority of the framing within the Juvenile Center done,” Larson explained. He then referred back to the Audit report with the roof leaking in the Center, saying they still had to work with the roofing contractors to try and resolve them to allow the workers to install new finishes, insulation, and sheetrock without having any water damage happen to them. He reported that over the next month, it won’t feel as though they will make a lot of progress as they will be completing a lot of “rough-in” projects.
The Board finished the meeting by approving the Invoices for April and discussed the estimated timeline of their budget for 2023 with Deputy Director Paul Bissonette, who explained that he is beginning to start the processes to gather information to present a preliminary budget plan for 2023. “Deputy Director Paul Bissonette will be sending out Personnel estimates this week, then the next phase will be getting revenue and other service expenditure estimates to the Department Heads,” Director Larson explained. “We hope to have a draft budget based just upon the Department Head’s recommendations for myself and Deputy Director Bissonette to review by the end of July. Then as has been our past practice, we will be making a formal budget request to the Corrections Board at our September Board meeting (Monday, September 12),” he added. The Board approved all motions unanimously.
The Board will meet again on Monday, June 13, at the Tri-County Corrections Center.
