LOCAL POSTAL CUSTOMER
Caldwell, Idaho
Edition Twenty-Six
PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID EDDM-RETAIL
JANUARY 2017
Introducing Dave’s Big Back Yard
Hernan Reyes An Inspiration to all
Paynter Avenue History
Angelina Goodson CHS National Hispanic Scholar
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 12
The burden to present a plan to enhance safety features for the tent facility is up to Sheriff Kieran Donahue (in photo) and his department. They will have 60 days from January 3rd to bring the plan to City Council.
During the December 19th City Council meeting, Mayor Nancolas told the opposing factions of the debate on whether or not the tented jail facility should revert back to a work release center from its current use as a minimum security facility, that this decision should never have had to come to the city council. The relationship between the Sheriff’s office and the board of the County Commissioners has been rocky at best for a long time. Due to their conflicted working relationship, neither side could work out a solution to the problem of securing the tented facility’s structure to insure the community’s safety when it came to the problem of recent inmate escapes over this past 18 months. County Commissioners Craig Hanson and Steve Rule supported the amendment of the special use permit to return the tented facility to its original 2005 form, which was to house work-release sentenced inmates only. That special use permit was amended in 2010 to allow the structure to also house minimum security inmates to reduce the inmate load at the county jail facility which had overcrowding issues at the time. Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue said the facility to house minimum security inmates should be maintained to avoid costly transfers of 50 plus minimum security inmates to outside facilities at the cost of one million dollars a year when he thought the security issues of the tent facility could
City Council from L to R: Dennis Callsen, Rob Hopper, Mayor Nancolas, Shannon Ozuna, Chris Allgood, and Chuck Stadick. They had a tough decision that never should have had to come before City Council.
be remedied at a much lesser cost by adding fencing around the kitchen area, the outdoor recreation area and putting a “lid” over the facility. He also spoke of putting a hardening agent on the interior walls to make them stronger to avoid the ability of inmates to damage the canvas allowing them to cut their way out of the facility. These security measures were previously discussed in the 2010 amendment which converted the facility to a minimum security facility. At this time, they still have not been put in place as previously discussed. Councilman Rob Hopper aired his frustration, that though these measures had been previously addressed, that nothing had happened to put them into place then and did not feel reassured that they would be put into place now. The cost to house minimum security inmates in other outside area facilities was said to be about one million dollars a year as opposed to the lower cost of making those security enhanced improvements at the current facility, which should have been in place to begin with. Both of these are band aide solutions as the aging tent facility has only about an 8-10 years of life left in it anyway. Money will need to be spent no matter what the solution. There were other logistic problems with outsourcing inmates such as travel back and forth from Jerome’s facility to come here to court dates and for those inmates to have access to legal counsel prior to those dates. Their lawyers would either have to travel to Jerome to meet with them or the inmate would
THE NIGHT SHIFT SHOVEL SQUAD CPD goes the extra mile!
by L. Summers, Editor
photos by Leora Summers
Council Decides–Minimum Security or Work Release Center for tented jail facility
by L. Summers, Editor
have to come here a day early for counsel, just prior to their court date causing more cost, time and logistical problems. There is no perfect solution to this situation and the Mayor is correct in being that this never should have had to come before the Council. However, since it did, a decision was made with a four-to-two vote to amend the prior agreement allowing the facility to be used for minimum security inmates to revert it back to a work release facility only, as originally designed for, but would continue to allow the facility to house the minimum security inmates and give the county 60 days from January 3rd, the day the order of decision will be accepted and recorded into the Council’s record, to present a plan on how they propose to secure the facility, making it acceptable to continue to house minimum security inmates, to insure the safety of the public. At that point, if they were not able to do that, the facility would revert back to a work release facility as in the original Special Use Permit. If they do meet the condition to present their solid plan, another timeline continuing to allow minimum security inmates to remain there would be determined with a deadline to get the job done and once again, if it is not completed satisfactorily, then the facility would revert back to being a work release facility only. Commissioner Tom Dale believes that with the changing of the board of commissioners in January with the addition of Pam White, they will be able to work with the sheriff’s office to get the job done.
What’s all that ruckus?
by Gator Hagan
submitted photo
My wife, Cheryl, and I were having a late dinner when suddenly my dog’s ears stood up and she let out a muffled warning “woof.” The warning was not so unusual except for this night, 18 degrees a light snow and icy streets, I decided to step outside and see what our dog was warning us about. I mean, for anybody to be out in this nasty weather, they just had to be up to no good - - - right? I heard a sort of grinding sound out towards my car. I was looking into the dark of night but I could certainly see a couple dark silhouettes moving around my car. I was about to turn back into the house to call the police when one of the silhouettes said hello to me by name. I stepped outside, in that nasty weather, only to find myself wonderfully amazed. Two Caldwell police officers were on L to R: Officer Ben Heinrich, Cheryl either side of my car and I nearly fell over in surprise at what they Hagan, and Lt Joey Hoadley were doing. Both officers had a snow shovel in their hands and they Officer Jeff Cordel, Sean Mc Donald, Sean King, Chad Ivie, Robert Heaton, Eric were burning energy removing snow from our driveway and our sidewalk! You guys are great! Thank you to Phillips, and Randy Deleon. Their motto was, “No Driveway Left Behind!” Officer Lt. Hoadley and Officer Heinrich. Stay safe you guys. With utmost respect; Gator and Cheryl Hagan On December 9th, a group of Caldwell Police Officers got together to Editor’s Note: Cheryl Hagan sent me an e-mail that said, “I died on May 22nd and the Caldwell Police do a little public service. They went around town and shoveled driveways. arrived 4 minutes after my husband called. Afterwards, I was on life support for 5 days. Officer Hoadley said that he didn’t want me to slip on the ice.” What a bunch of good folks our community has in our police force!