Pending a decision by the full Hamilton County Board of Commissioners next month, it appears the village of Marquette may be receiving additional services from the county sheriff’s office beginning this fall. In the excused absence of board members Rich Nelson and John Thomas the three remaining board members heard a presentation on Monday from Sheriff Jeromy McCoy regarding an interlocal agreement offered by Marquette contracting with the sheriff’s office to provide 10 hours per month of law enforcement services in Marquette at a cost of $6,000 per year to the village.
“We’re in town 10 hours a month already,” McCoy told the board, but added that the interlocal agreement would allow his deputies to enforce village ordinances, which is something that they didn’t have jurisdiction for previously.
McCoy said under the agreement deputies would be able to issue citations for such things a nuisance ordinance violations. He said the two-year agreement would take effect Oct. 1.
The board moved initially to ratify the agreement but after further discussion it was decided to table the matter until the full board could weigh in. The matter was tabled until the next meeting which will be held on Sept. 11. There will be no meeting next week due to the Labor Day holiday.
Another matter brought by the sheriff was also tabled pending a hearing by the entire Board of Commissioners on the 11th. McCoy presented two bids from insurance companies to provide catastrophic health insurance for prisoners at the county jail. The two quotes had deductibles of either $10,000 or $15,000, but McCoy said a third quote had deductibles of $25,000 and $50,000.
McCoy said the insurance policy is being considered because five prisoners in the past two years have had medical expenses totaling more than $10,000 which have had to be paid by the county.
“We recently had an inmate who received a $10,000 bag of IV at the hospital,” McCoy said. “You never know who gets arrested with what underlying medical condition.”
The matter was also tabled until the next meeting and McCoy said he would invite a representative of the insurance agency to attend the meeting.
One action taken by the board at Monday’s meeting was the awarding of a bid for a new box culvert on R Road between 11th and 12th to replace an aging bridge. The low bid of $270,000 was submitted by Van Kirk Brothers Contracting of Sutton. County Highway Superintendent Jeremy Brandt said because of inflation the cost is approximately $20,000 more than the last two box culverts the county installed. The work is to be done beginning in August of 2024.
During the public participation segment near the end of the meeting, the board heard from Omaha resident Ken Anderson who said he is making the rounds of Nebraska counties to express concerns about election corruption. Anderson told the board Hamilton County was the fourth county he had visited so far. He said as a software developer himself he is concerned about the high error rates found in ES&S Voting Systems products. He stated that the “gold standard” for counting votes, as demonstrated by various courts, is “hand to eye.”
