About half of the jail cell pods arrived at the site for the Bourbon County Law Enforcement Center Tuesday morning, with the remainder scheduled to come in next week.

The pods, which each include eight cells, with two beds in each, arrived already fabricated and ready to put in place. Their complete installation including welding is expected to be accomplished by the end of next week.

The pods will provide beds for 76 inmates, but the original site plans included a place for one more pod that would provide 16 more beds. During the Bourbon County Commission meeting Tuesday morning, Sheriff Bill Martin encouraged the commission to consider going ahead and getting that pod while the building is still being constructed.

Martin gave a report on the responses he got from surrounding counties he had contacted about housing their inmates. Many showed interest, including Wichita’s Kansas Department of Corrections, while other counties said they were too far away to transport inmates to Bourbon County.

Martin said he also spoke with counties that recently constructed or added on to their own jails, and those corrections departments shared advice that Bourbon County not be conservative in their number of beds, since even their newer and larger facilities are filling up.

Housing out-of-county inmates could bring in an additional $35 per inmate per day, and the excess number of beds would also insure that Bourbon County would not have to pay other counties to house local inmates.

Martin said now may be a good time to go ahead and get that pod, since the space is available and it would be easy to put in while the building is still open and other pods are being placed. Once the building is complete, it would be more expensive and difficult to open the building back up in order to install it.

The commissioners said that decision would be made based on the available funding.

After about a year of discussions on the topic, and with a case making its way through the court, the Bourbon County Commission decided Tuesday to just do away with the vicious dogs policy that had been written in 1987.

The commissioners, along with members of the Sheriff’s Office and county attorney Justin Meeks, determined that even updating the policy to better define a vicious dog would not solve the problem since the county does not have the employees to enforce it.

“If you don’t enforce a policy, why have it?” Meeks asked.

Under the previous policy, it was left to the sheriff’s deputies to answer calls concerning vicious dogs, but that department does not have the manpower or the equipment to respond to such calls or handle the animals, even if they are able to catch them.

Undersheriff Ben Cole said even having a deputy focus full-time on vicious dog calls would not be sufficient, and would also be expensive due to the deputy’s wages, a kennel and other equipment and mileage from traveling through the county. He added it is up to the county to prioritize what they want to accomplish and devote county funds to.

By dissolving the policy, circumstances involving vicious dogs become a civil issue. Pit bulls are also no longer banned in the county, though Meeks pointed out some homeowners’ insurance policies have their own restrictions on owning such dogs.

In the past month, the Bourbon County Courthouse has had an unexpected, feathered visitor on its lawn and even inside the lobby.

Around the holidays, Christopher Petty of the Kansas State Southwind Extension Office and other county employees and courthouse visitors noticed a rooster and hen lingering around the courthouse property. While the hen has not been seen of late, Petty said the rooster is still seen frequently.

“The rooster, he seems to stick around,” Petty said, saying they believe it is owned by one of the residents of the homes to the west of the courthouse. “He wanders around the courthouse quite a bit.”

While the rooster occasionally makes visitors nervous when they see it walking along the sidewalk, Petty said the bird has been calm instead of aggressive as many roosters are. When the rooster found its way inside the courthouse one day, Petty said a commissioner was able to pick it up and take it back outside without any trouble.

“He’s pretty tame,” Petty said, adding that he is also likely tough, as it seems to thrive in an urban environment.

Until the courthouse rooster decides to spend his time elsewhere, visitors to the courthouse may be able to spot him wandering around the parking lot, lawn and sidewalks of the county property.

Taking advantage of the warm and dry weather, the Bourbon County Law Enforcement Center project continues to move forward, as a steel structure appeared on the property over the past week.

The Bourbon County Commissioners and members of the Sheriff’s Department met Tuesday with engineers and architects involved in the project to receive an update on what has been accomplished and what steps are coming up in the process.

Earlier in January, the concrete foundation was laid. As of Wednesday, January 25, the steel frame of the building had also begun to be put in place at the piece of land just east of the Briggs Auto Group. The steel building is expected to be up entirely by the end of February.

The site’s utilities are also being installed, although that step is progressing at a slower pace because of the rock. The cell pods are to be delivered and set the week of February 13, with the stairs and mezzanines being delivered the following week.

Other equipment is set to arrive in March while others, such as the kitchen equipment, are scheduled to be on site in July.

“It’s all falling together,” Kevin Rost, of Goldberg Group, Inc., said during the meeting.

Project manager Gary Walker, of Universal Construction Company, pointed out that, although the building seems to be moving quickly now, it will soon appear to be moving slowly once the exterior is complete. But in those months, he said work will be accomplished inside the structure and out of sight.

After his first three weeks in office as the Bourbon County District Two Commissioner, Jeff Fischer continues to learn about his new role as well as look for ways for the county to have success.

Born and raised in Hammond before leaving in 1995 for Arizona and then Florida, Fischer moved back to the area in 2005. A licensed professional engineer, he spent time working in Kansas City before tiring of the long commute. Fischer serves as a pastor at the Fort Scott Apostolic Christian Church, but now leads in the county in a different way after being elected in 2016.

“A neighbor called and asked me if I’d do him a favor,” Fischer said of how he first entered the race for Bourbon County Commissioner of District Two. “And without knowing what the question was, I answered yes.”

Fischer said part of the logic for his campaign was because of construction projects happening in the county and his experience in contracting. Fischer added he sees a number of other concerns in the county including dropping population leading to a shrinking taxpaying base, high taxes discouraging new industry and the need to leverage resources available.

“For me to earn a living, I had to drive to Kansas City or Joplin,” Fischer said. “And that’s what our kids are facing, too. There needs to be more economic development activity.”

Fischer said one of his first goals in his new position is to compare Bourbon County to other counties as benchmarks, to see how they are successful and if there are ways Bourbon County can follow their example.

Already, Fischer said he has learned a great deal about what he is able to do as a commissioner as well as what is not allowed, such as meeting with a fellow commissioner outside of a scheduled meeting, even if only for a casual conversation.