By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Kosciusko County’s project building towers to improve public safety communications in the county is nearly complete.

Kosciusko County Administrator Marsha McSherry provided that news at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Merit Board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 14.

“They’re working on putting the last antennas on the south (tower) site at Claypool (Elementary) School, so once that’s wrapped up, they will flip the switch probably sometime next week mid-week I would say and start tuning,” she said. “Then depending on how long it takes to do the tuning, then they’ll be ready to start testing, and it’s probably a couple weeks of testing, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to make it before the leaves start to fall.”

Along with that site, there are also towers near the Kosciusko County Highway Department in Warsaw and northeast of Dewart Lake in the northern part of the county.

In other business, the board:

• Heard from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Shane Bucher that 245 people were incarcerated in the Kosciusko County Jail as of the time of Wednesday’s meeting.
• Heard from Bucher that “three of our jailers (are) going through jail school.” “It’s a weeklong class, a 40-hour based class and they’re doing it here online. So after that, they’ll be certified,” he said.
• Heard from Bucher that the KCSO is working to hire for one jailer spot. It’s also working to fill the deputy position left by Chris Francis, who left to take a job with the Warsaw Police Department.
• Heard from KCSO Capt. Travis Marsh that the office may be trying for grant funding soon for a crime scene camera and software system.
• Heard from KCSO Detective James Marshall that the office just got grant funding for a helmet-mounted camera system for the SWAT team.