Jail expansion: What about staffing?

Deciding on increased staffing levels, which will be an ongoing expense in the budget and needed with more space, could be stickier when two-thirds of the board of commissioners will be new faces on Jan. 9.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Kim Edmondson said the jail has to fill six vacancies just to bring the facility up to full staff and will need to hire an additional 17 as a result of the expansion.

She estimated the annual cost for those 23 needed positions will be $1.3 million.

“This (23 people) is the number of people we’ll need to have ready going in (to the expansion),” she said. “There would be no phasing in this group (after the expansion is built).” Read more. Brian Walker, CdA Press