The costly possibility of renovating and expanding the Ellsworth County Jail is once again on the plates of the Ellsworth County commissioners to consider.

At Monday’s commission meeting, Sheriff Murray Marston presented commissioners with the needs assessment of the jail conducted by jail consultant Bill Garnos.

“I know you are going to need some time to go through this,” Marston said.

Marston noted, however, Garnos concluded the current jail is not adequate for current or future needs. Garnos recommends the county look at a 25-bed jail with dedicated intact and discharge areas as well as a dedicated medical area. Currently, the jail is an 18-bed facility.

No cost estimates were given.

Marston said he will return in a week or so to discuss the needs assessment so the commissioners can decide which direction the county will go.

In a related matter, approval was given to pay a $3,420 invoice from Garnos for the assessment. That payment is half of the $6,840 Garnos originally charged for the assessment. However, due to health problems and the resulting length of time it took to complete the assessment, Garnos sent an updated invoice to the county with the discounted amount.

In other business:

• Don Siemsen of Holyrood asked commissioners if they could do anything to stop theft of home titles at the county level. He noted thieves nationwide are going online to steal home ownership titles and change the ownership away from the original owner without their knowledge.

According to the television commercials highlighting the services of Lifelock, a fraudulent home deed can be drafted and presented to a county register of deeds office to file and that document cannot be turned down. Siemsen asked the commissioners if there were some way contact could be made with the homeowner, alerting them that title change was taking place beforehand.

Commission chairman Greg Bender said they could talk to County Attorney Paul J. Kasper about it, but there was probably nothing the county could do.

• After a 10-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (contract and staffing) with Kerianne Ehrlich, administrator of the county health department, approval was given to rescind Ehrlich’s previous resignation. She will now go back to working as a county employee as administrator of the health department due to staffing changes.

• No action was taken after a 5-minute executive session to discuss nonelected personnel (new employee) with Teresa Shute, supervisor of the county’s noxious weed office, landfill and recycling program.

• Officials from the Wilson Heritage Museum presented a 2024 budget request totaling $3,500. That is $1,000 more than the museum received for 2023.

• Resolution 2023-R04, a resolution to cancel certain county warrants (checks) totaling $3,361, was approved. County Clerk Shelly Vopat said vendors did not cash these county checks yet, so they will be cancelled and the monies returned to the appropriate funds.

The next meeting of the Ellsworth County Commission will be at 9 a.m. Monday, May 22, at the county courthouse.