Monroe County Commissioner John Moyer was named chairman of the county’s prison board at last Tuesday’s Prison Board reorganizational meeting.

County Commissioner John Christy was named vice chairman and Marlo Merhige was named secretary.

After reorganizing, the meeting turned to prison numbers.

“The census is 377. I don’t want to jinx it but it has been 375 to 390 for the last couple of weeks,” said Warden Garry Haidle.

“We just had a state run last week and I believe the sheriff took eight on that run, and I believe we will have one more run before the end of January. We are holding steady.”

Budget

“So your new report you’re looking at actual figures. The budget for the year currently stands at 90%,” Merhige said. “And I say that because there’s a couple of couple of postings I know that have to occur. Regular wages ended up $135,000 less than prior year. Net overall wages, personnel salaries, wages was $215,000 greater than last year.

“I need to post yet public liability and retirement their quarterly posts and on auto insurance, so roughly that’s going to be about $280,000. And I figured with that with the 280 posted our budget still is going to be 92% So it’ll still be way under $16 million.”

Old business

The Deputy Warden of Operations Phil Diliberto brought up the subject again that water use at the county nursing home has been increasing lately and perhaps there would be way to see if the tank is leaking. Commissioner John Christy said that they might be able to hear a leak with a pair of hydrophones and he would look into the problem.

New business

The correctional facility is looking into a different provider for the cable into the prison. Officials have contacted “Direct TV or Dish, both have offered packages offered with the Dish one a little bit better buy,” Christy said. “You know, Dish One, Direct TV would probably give us trouble with Wi-Fi security risks with them getting in with the internet, so we need look into all those things.”

“Right now we’re good. There’s no broken TVs. I replaced the one on my unit and eventually start replacing the TVs with a 55-inch TV,” Diliberto said.

Before adjourning to an executive session, the Haidle praised the employees at the facility for the professional way they conducted themselves during the incarceration of Bryan Kohberger, accused of killing four Idaho college students, before his was extradited to Idaho.