Carbon County is spending $4,160 to install a secondary water tap that will be used to feed the prison when primary water lines are cut and moved during the Emergency Lane road widening project.

During the county prison board meeting on Monday, which was postponed from last Wednesday due to the winter storm, the board approved moving forward with installing a wet tap so the prison doesn’t lose full water supply during an approximate six-hour shut-off period later this year.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said the construction company doing the road widening has to dig down before they can put in the new road. This means the current pipes going to the water supply tank need to be lowered as well.

With the wet tap, the prison would still have water, but officials said they would cut back on water availability to inmates, such as showers and provide bottled water, during the project.

Nothstein said this wet tap would be good for any future water supply issues at the prison as well.

He added that he also contacted a water supply tanker company and was quoted $350 for a 7,000-gallon tank that would be used during the shut-off.

In other matters, the prison board approved a $3,268 quote to fix the motor shelf on one of its rooftop units that was cracked.

Warden Timothy Fritz also reported that the prison was operating at full capacity Monday morning because of the weekend inmates who are serving their sentences. The prison has 247 beds.

He added that the number should probably drop to around 235 by the end of Monday as those inmates were processed out for the week.