March 28, 2024

Jasper County Jail has heat outage

Supervisors approve new units

After a heating unit at the Jasper County Jail stopped working last month the Jasper County Board of Supervisors held an emergency meeting Friday with Sheriff John Halferty.

Halferty requested the purchase of two Lennox heating units to be installed at the Jasper County Jail after one of the units stopped working just before Christmas.

Halferty said there is one part of the building that is affected by the outage and that all inmates have been moved to the side of the jail that is heated properly.

“Our numbers are low right now, so we haven’t had to transport anyone from the jail,” Halferty said. “It’s kind of unexpected, but with a 12-year-old building things begin to need to be replaced.”

Supervisor Denny Carpenter said the board approved the purchase of two heating units because another unit seemed to be “limping” along.

“If it did go out, it would’ve closed down the jail completely,” Carpenter said.

The board of supervisors approved the purchase of two units at the cost of $27,770 from Warnick Reeves Mechanical, of Newton.

Carpenter said maintenance director Adam Sparks received a quote from two companies and Warnick Reeves Mechanical said it would take 10 days to receive the units and have them installed.

“We are hoping that by the end of this week will have received them,” Carpenter said.

Contact Kayla Langmaid at 641-792-3121 ext. 6513 or klangmaid@newtondailynews.com