As the Sheriff’s Office heads into the new year, I want to update everyone on the progress of a few of the projects in the Office. Some of these were planned, but a few were dropped on us like a wet ceiling tile (pun intended).
Let’s go back to July when we had a large flood in the office. The administrative portion of the building was soaked in 3 inches of raw sewage due to a blockage in the lines both above the ceiling and below the building. The Office was already in the process of receiving new ceiling tiles and disinfecting due to numerous previous leaks from defective overhead piping.
This was a devastating blow to the Office as it displaced at least 8 employees causing them to move their day-to-day operations all over the building, and for some, completely out of the building into other Office facilities.
I am happy to say that with the hard work of the County Shop’s Maintenance crew, Contractors, KCAMP and the amazing employees of the Office, the repairs are almost complete and a move back into the area will be happening soon. With new drywall, fresh paint, carpet, ceiling tiles, new overhead sewage lines and some replaced furniture, the space is looking great. Even with all this amazing work being done, there is still great concern about future flooding. The underground sewage lines leading away from the Office have some damage and were believed to be a cause of at least one of the floods. Against the recommendations of the command staff in the Office, these repairs were never completed, and a decision was made to attempt a once a month “flushing” of the lines instead.
The CALEA Accreditation project that was started quite some time ago is finally getting to the point of completion. This has been a long, drawn-out process and explains why less than 1 percent of the law enforcement agencies in Kansas are accredited. With that being said, a compliance review, done this past week, shows that the Office is over 98% complete with the process. This could not have been done without the amazing commitment of the employees of the Office. One of the biggest projects of the year was to try and fix the Correction’s Division staffing issues.
After about five months of working on this, we were able to bring Correction’s pay up and make it comparable with other agencies around us. The goal was to hire higher more qualified candidates, increase retention of new and existing staff, and get the staffing to levels that were required to safely run the facility. As we end the year, I am pleased to say we are one employee short from being fully staffed in the Correction’s Division. In addition, implementation of mandatory training was done, and all new staff members are required to attend a week-long training class to be National Institute of Justice certified Correction’s Officers. The staff will also complete a two-week in-house training program to better prepare them for their position.
I want to thank all the great employees of the Sheriff’s Office and appreciate all their hard work in making the Agency what it is today!
Happy New Year!
Stay safe!
Sheriff Coffman
Eric Coffman's service as sheriff comes to an end in January. Nate Boeckman was elected to the sheriff's post by voters in November.