By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir and the board of commissioners have some big decisions to make. Last month, a local contractor installed three industrial-sized water softeners inside the Barton County Detention Center. On Saturday, Bellendir was notified of plumbing issues inside the facility. That prompted a nearly hour-long special commission meeting Monday morning.
“So we’re clear on this fact, I do not have raw sewage running around in the jail,” Bellendir told the board. “We’re not flooding the jail with the contaminated water. This is fresh water that is coming in and has gravel in it, which has already been in the water all along because it was in the water softener before it came out. So, we do not have a sewage problem, we have a water-flow problem, and we’re working our way around it.”
The inner tank of a water softening tank includes gravel and porous resin-coated beads that absorb the minerals in tap water. The salt associated with water softeners is used to break down the minerals trapped in the inner tank. At the jail, Bellendir estimates between 200 and 300 pounds of the gravel and resin found its way into the plumbing.
“What has happened is gravel and resin has infiltrated all of the air-controlled valves in the facility, which is unfortunately where all the inmates are held,” said Bellendir. “We don’t know what it’s done to our kitchen appliances because we have commercial dishwashers, we have commercial plumbing fixtures; we’re set up just like a restaurant.”
Bellendir explained that the air-controlled valves are central to the problem. The jail does not use soft water for inmate comfort, but rather for the air-controlled valves, which give staff a level of control over water usage in the facility. The valves, which are sensitive to contamination, also prohibit inmates from flooding the jail. Some of the jail’s several hundred valves may be repairable, and some may need replaced.
“There are probably not enough kits in the state of Kansas to fix everything in my jail at this point,” Bellendir said. “We don’t know.”
By Saturday night, the jail was down to six working toilets for 81 inmates. Bellendir was unsure if and when he would have to begin moving inmates to other facilities. Using buckets, inmates and staff were able to flush toilets, but Bellendir said coordinating escorted bathroom visits for 81 inmates presents problems of its own.
The sheriff appeared before the commission Monday morning because the problem is a relatively unique one for the county.
“Typically, under Kansas statute, the sheriff is required to maintain his facility,” Bellendir explained. “You give me a budget to do that. Infrastructure and capital improvement is a county commission deal. We are definitely into the infrastructure and improvement area.”
The local contractor that installed the softeners has continued to work inside the detention center throughout the weekend. Bellendir’s staff has scoured Great Bend and neighboring counties for required hardware so the plumbers can remain on site. The goal as of Monday morning was to open the lines and flush out as much gravel and resin as possible.
“It’s all concrete,” said Bellendir. “Some of it has floor drains and some of it does not, but we’re basically going to flood the jail with as much water as we think we have to, to try and clear these lines. We don’t know if that’s going to work. Once it’s cleared, we’re going to button everything back up, repair the valves that we think need repaired, reinstall the valves we think don’t need prepared, then see what we have.”
Bellendir explained the matter is further complicated by security issues inside the detention center. The plumbing runs through the facility’s ceiling, and getting to the hardware will likely require cutting through expanded steel in the walls. Further, the jail is 21 years old and run like a hotel with 100 percent occupancy every day of the year, so some pipes have deteriorated.
Then, there are the inmates. Bellendir acknowledged the county must take steps to ensure no inmate civil rights are violated while they are in custody. The inmates may also have hearings scheduled in Barton County and beyond. Bellendir said it will be very costly to move inmates, both financially and in terms of manpower.
“My thoughts are, with your permission, is to tell the contractor to do what is necessary to get us back online,” Bellendir said Monday. “If that includes cutting out some of our plumbing, changing out some of our control valves, whatever we need to do to get us back online. I do not have that in my budget.”
The commission took no direct action Monday with the lone goal of keeping the jail functional for staff and inmates. Bellendir said costs could reach tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars if large portions of plumbing need to be replaced. Who is liable for the expenses will be determined at a later date.