Commissioners told it's costing $3672 per day while the jail is closed | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

Experts say problem that cause the blackout has been fixed

    The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, meeting in a special called meeting Tuesday (6-18-13), heard reports from its staff about what caused the problems that resulted in the county jail being evacuated. The reports from County Manager Randell Woodruff and Public Works Director Christina Smith were based on reports from several experts, including a state jail inspector. Sheriff Alan Jordan was present, along with several members of his staff, but none of them spoke.

    What the board heard was, essentially, that a newly installed commercial dryer had been install improperly and it shorted out, causing the loss of power. The jail has a backup generator system, but that did not function properly. It turns out that the generator had been wired improperly and that is apparently what caused it to not function properly to provide power when the dryer kicked the breakers serving the jail.

    Sheriff Jordan had previously told the media that the problem was "40-year old wiring" saying that it showed the need to build a new jail. As it turned out the main problem was caused by wiring only a few months old. The problem with the backup system failure came, apparently, from the fact that the system had not been tested to determine if it worked properly if power to the jail went out. That generator is a little less than a year old, so the age of the courthouse, which houses the jail in the basement, had little or nothing to do with the power failures on June 6 and 8.

    A recent inspection of the jail revealed other routine maintenance problems that had not been addressed. A shower had apparently been running hot water for days, if not weeks, because the shutoff valve did not work properly. Other items identified in the inspection report were items that could and should have been fixed by routine maintenance. But the Beaufort Observer discovered that no such maintenance work orders exist. In fact, the county "does not use a work order system" Public Works Director Christina Smith told us. After repeated requests we were told that there were simply no records that Sheriff Jordan or his staff had requested repairs in the jail. We were also told there are no records showing routine inspection and testing of the electrical and emergency systems. Thus it can be assumed that they have never been tested or inspected.

    The board was told Tuesday that as a result of all of the inspections over the last few days that other repairs had been identified and some of those will require obtaining parts that may take 10-14 days to secure. But as far as the electrical problems that caused the blackout go, the board was told those problems have now been fixed and the various inspectors had given an "ok" to reopen the fail.

    When that will happen is apparently being left to Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons. Sermons issued an order closing the jail until further notice. The law requires that as soon as practicable after an evacuation, the Sheriff must obtain an order from a judge assigning prisoners to other jails. Sermons did that based on where the Sheriff had actually sent the prisoners. Fifty-three were sent to Bertie County, 7 (under the age of 21) were sent to Pamlico County and 6 females were sent to Pitt County.

    The board was informed that the estimated average daily cost per day to Beaufort County would be about $3,672. If the jail remains closed until all issues are completed it was reported that it could be 10-14 days to get all the parts in and installed. But those repairs now are things that should have been identified and fixed before the power blackout and would have been done while the jail was occupied. Whether Sermons will allow the jail to be re-occupied, now that the electrical problems that caused the blackout have been fixed, remains to be seen.

    You can watch the entire 12 minute meeting in the video below: