In 2021 Linn County Commissioners Jim Johnson and Rick James were highly critical when Sheriff Kevin Friend approved the acceptance of a military armored vehicle that cost the sheriff's office $7,500 for delivery. Last September, deputies used the vehicle to rescue civilians and deputies pinned down at Critzer Lake by a suicidal gunman. (Journal file photo)
By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – Twice in the past week Linn County Commissioner Jim Johnson has made light of a grant received by the county sheriff’s office that was used to purchase a trailer with three self-contained restrooms.
Johnson brought up the issue at the commission meeting on Monday, July 22, and again at a political forum for candidates at Bunker Hill Community Center on Thursday, July 25. He used it as an example of spending waste in county government.
At the commission meeting, Johnson pulled the item out of the claims to talk about it. Commission Chair Danny McCullough pointed out to Johnson that Friend had sent the commissioners an email a week or two earlier about the purchase.
"He sent us an email a week or two ago that he got a $150,000 grant from KDHE but I just want to tell everybody that that's what was purchased was a 16-by-6 (foot) three stall bathroom for $50,400," said Johnson.
However, in an interview on Friday, July 26, Sheriff Kevin Friend said that the purchase of the trailer was only part of a list of purchases made possible by a grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).
The sheriff said he sent a written report on the grant – with a list of all the items purchased – to the county commissioners. He took issue with Johnson’s mischaracterization of the grant, saying that while sheriff’s offices in other counties would receive thanks for their efforts to improve services, the commissioner twisted it to scorn Friend’s efforts.
The sheriff said the grant was better than Christmas in July because it provided some items his office could only wish for and otherwise would not have an opportunity to buy. He said he was already planning on either building a restroom or purchasing a portable toilet for the department’s shooting range at the county landfill, but the trailer would be better because it came at no cost and it provided nicer accommodations.
He said the trailer could also be used at crime scenes or similar events where law enforcement and other emergency personnel are onsite for extended periods of time. He plans to make it available for events such as the fair or the arts and crafts fair where there are always shortages of restrooms. He said it would likely arrive in time for the crafts fair.
Friend said he learned of the grant for federal money from a company that supplies items to the jail. The vendor told him of a device that could be mounted in the jail’s clinic that could remotely read the vitals like respiration and pulse of prisoners being held in the clinics two cells.
The cost of the device, which is in a box hung from the ceiling, is $10,000 each or $20,000 for both cells. Friend said the devices would save time and keep the clinic’s nurses free to focus on the patient being tended to in the clinic.
When he contacted KDHE about the grant, he found that there was a list of supplies related to inmate and community health that he could purchase. He was also told that the grant program had not been widely promoted by KDHE and that if they didn’t allocate the money in a few days, the funds would be sent back to the federal agency.
Friend said he quickly contacted more than a half dozen of sheriffs in other counties about the grant and started working on a list of items he thought the jail could use. His list included $6,000 worth of filters for the Justice Center heating and cooling systems - a five-year supply - as well as a five-year supply of gloves for the jail staff.
Other items included the newest technology for the jail’s clinics, including devices for taking temperatures and monitoring blood pressure. Friend said that with those purchases, the clinic was as well equipment as an emergency room at the University of Kansas Hospital and that the nurses were ecstatic about the expected improvements.
However, when Friend submitted the grant request to KDHE, he was told it the total amount, about $70,000, wasn’t enough to consider. He would need to bump up the request to at least $150,000. In reviewing the list from KDHE again, he took more notice of the trailer with three self-contained restrooms.
He added the portable restrooms to the grant request, however, when he submitted the grant again, KDHE officials told him that in order to get the trailer, he also was required to purchase a generator for the trailer and an event tent. While he protested being forced to buy the event tent, he was told that was nonnegotiable.
So those items were added to the list, the check was cut by KDHE and deposited by the sheriff’s office in short order and the items were ordered. Friend said that several other sheriff’s offices were able to take advantage of the grant as well.
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