Man of his Word

[Hulk]

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2013/01/22/sheriff-asks-county-to-f...

Its nice to see the Sheriff being man of his word.  He has only been in office for a few weeks and he is tackling our counties problems that have been overlooked for years.  Along with wanting to fix the problems, he is getting involved with Scottville trying to solve their police issues right away, I think the County should have been patrolling Scottville at the beginning of their mess.

[Hulk]

I actually do not work at the jail or for the County, just a person who doesn't see a problem with that our Sheriff wants to do.  You do understand that their our Cole supporters who do not work for the County, based on the votes he got.  I don't mind have the County use my tax dollars to pay for things that the jail needs to make the employees healthier and to make the building last longer.

They could just open all the doors and windows and let fresh air come in, Right? 

[XLFD]

I visited the MCSO today to pick up a few FOIAs (let me take a short timeout to thank the new sheriff for rethinking his new policy and giving me each of the previously disputed FOIAs free of charge) one of which happened to be the 8 pages of notes the new administration has made to fix up their workplace. 

I will concur with Aquaman's statement about what seems to be a common complaint among some who were strong partisans for Cole, that the opposition hates Cole.  We had several people here during the two sheriff's elections that had some strong opinions, like Phil Massey for Cole and Johanna for Fiers, to name a couple of the most strident.  Both sides thought the other guy was less qualified than their guy and stated why, but their opposition wasn't based on hate, at least explicitly.

I still think Cole treated Martin Schilling contrary to his rights back in 2008, and I think he makes a mistake in not ever being contrite for it.  I think he will put the interests of his fellow MCSO officers higher than the interests of the rest of us.  Which is potentially bad if those officers overstep their authority.  Other than that, at this point, I think Kim Cole is a swell guy.  I still think he will have some challenges in the administrative capacity, and hope he overcomes them.  But even though I saw dirty vents in the entryway, I want him to tell us why we need to come up with nearly $20,000, especially since you'd probably have a few trustee prisoners who wouldn't mind getting into the ventilation system. 

 

[AQUAMAN]

XLFD, that's a nice update on the new Sheriff and the dept. office. It also points out that this "hatred attitude" by Cole supporters against Fiers supporters should never be, now, or in the future either HULK! Let it "sink in" and get right with it. The only thing I see wrong with this out of the gate January budget question, yes, it's not a criticism yet necessarily, until and if it's approved, is spending $18K for duct cleaning. It just strikes anyone not in the know, of how it can be. And is that too much to ask? I don't think so. Let the "fair bidding with sealed bids" start, if in fact it's PROVEN warranted and necessary. Masonco mentioned a point earlier about filters and recycle motor that also needs to be evaluated. Maybe, just maybe, the entire system just needs normal routine maintenance, like almost anything else in homes and businesses. Instead of just saying ok, we have $3Million in the budget to spend, just go ahead and spend it, let's take the straight road, and right road, and see if we actually need to do it. Hulk, get off your false prophet soapbox, listen, pay attention, analyze, then digest the information posted around this forum. You might just learn something. Or, if the case is you have inside knowledge and can inform us correctly, then please do so. You say you are just a voter, not an employee, your posts to me seem quite contrary to that, so, now you've lost even more credibility imho. Going thru life disgruntled and mad at opinions contrary to your own, aren't going to get your opinions received on a fair and equitable basis. It sounds quite far Leftist, and anti-objective.

[Jane]

"especially since you'd probably have a few trustee prisoners who wouldn't mind getting into the ventilation system. "  your a funny guy now  aren't ya!

[XLFD]

Well, as the idiom says, if it looks like a duct, flows like a duct, then it's a duct (drumroll).

[Jane]

Building Air Quality (BAQ) A Guide for Building Owners and Facility... is a free downloadeable(in pdf format) guide from EPA.

IF I were the head of a building (whether high rise or sheriff dept.)I would read this to find out about IAQ( Indoor Air Quality) the I would look to the Building Air Quality Action Plan also in pdf published by the EPA.

While reading those I would probably get an collar clip on air monitor for a few employees and have them walk around with it on for the specified hours on the instructions. Send it in, get it tested and use the manuals to tell me how to mitigate any issues that were found.

Spending 18K for air duct cleaning is easy way to make it look like you've done something(I bet the people including Cole at the sheriffs office do not realize the extent of IAQ issues and probably do really believe air duct cleaning is a good idea and sufficient. I haven't read those manuals yet so maybe it is, but I am betting the MCSO has not read those manuals either and is using a laymans way of thinking), when in reality the "doing something that will acutal address IAQ probably takes a whole hell of a lot more(I am guessing that is what would be found in the manuals, that things are more complicated than a air duct cleaning).

I actually don't think they want to get into those manuals, (having read many other types of EPA/OSHA manuals things can get complicated fast) and we may be better off spending 18K on something that may or may not have any effect than getting into true IAQ issues and spending 10 times that.

[Jane]

Well, that(my last paragraph) is unless the employees their want true indoor air quality.

Realize I am not saying Cole or MCSO employees are  bad or good here, I am saying I don't think anyone in MCSO( or MANY in this county) has experience in these sort of Management Issues that it really takes to run a business, building in a top tier management sort of way, if they did they would have been into these manuals before going public with any operations. I think most employees there are a little bit 'country' when it comes to large scale building management.that is all.

It is not like we have 40 High rises and large business complexes in this area.

Actually I take that back somewhat, we have Longfellow towers, Oakview, Tendercare, Meijer, Walmart, Hotels or whatever they are called now. I may consult those managers if I were Cole to ask about IAQ issues.

[Jane]

The hospital would be a great resource of IAQ familiar people to contact if someone had questions, they have to have some pretty tough standards to meet.

[XLFD]

Good points, Jane.  A lot of facilities ran by the County have IAQ issues that they have to address, they are likely to have their own standards and remediations that the Sheriff could have looked deeper into before bringing it to public light.  It could potentially be a setback for them if the County finds it an unnecessary expense.  Dirty vents and anecdotes, notwithstanding.

[Brian Carlson]

Do they still let the inmates smoke in the jail? I remember visiting the jail (not as an inmate) in the mid 70s. The air was thick with smoke, and there was a haze through out the jail. You could see the air. Like most places now days, they probably do not let the inmates smoke any more, but I could be wrong.

[AQUAMAN]

I believe the 'no smoking" ban pertains to any public building for over 10 years or so now. Jane, thanks for a very informed scientific update on the IAQ issue, quite informative. I see where the LDN stated yesterday the MC Finance Cmte./ Chuck Lange will also be looking into the issue before they decide on a plan to accept, apples for apples, good common sense. It appears that the ducts may NOT have been cleaned since the 14 years the building was new, not good, nor reflective of good policy on this by past Sheriff's either. Hankwitz was the planned contractor, I do hope some local business will be the recipient of the contract too. But, if the IAQ procedures are to be followed, it may come to pass that only an outside professional with all this fancy equipment can properly handle this task, costing many more thousands to the taxpayer, not good financially, but perhaps necessary to do it right.

[Chuck Finley]

So now its ok to fix the building? WOW Im glad you gave them your blessing Aquaman wow!