OZARK, MO — Something stinks in the Christian County Jail. Unidentified inmates have been flushing sheets, tennis shoes and other foreign items down the toilets, causing backup sewage into the jail and jail offices.
Christian County Presiding Commissioner Lynn Morris says the problem will take more than a million dollars to fix. The sewer will be hooked up to an existing system which include a cutter/shredder system with a duplicate backup unit.
“We’ve ordered the new system, which I hope will be here by next year,” Morris told the CCT. Material availability is the issue. The units may cost even more by next year by the time they are available.
“We have an alarm and monitoring system to keep watch on the situation in the meantime,” Morris said, adding that no cameras can be installed around toilets due to violation of privacy laws.
“Inmates have too much free time to get into things they shouldn’t,” Morris said.
It’s proving to be an expensive, smelly situation.
County didn’t get what was originally expected!
Beyond obvious poor choices by certain inmates, further investigation has revealed the size of the sewer pipes is smaller than the county thought it was getting when the jail was built more than 20 years ago, Morris said. But now, it’s too late to go back on the warranty, because it’s expired.
Sometimes, being in county government really stinks when you have to deal with issues like this!