A double order of e-cigarettes for the county jail was the subject of discussion at Tuesday night’s April meeting of the Nevada County Quorum Court, as Justice of the Peace Bob Cummings shared what he had discovered during an informal investigation.
As County Judge Mark Glass was describing the financial status of the county’s major accounts, talk arose about the jail’s spending being out of balance. Bob Cummings told the court that he had found the answer two weeks ago after some “back and forth.”
“What the difference was,” Cummings said. “They had made a double order. Because the legislature were looking at stopping the e-cigarettes. So they ordered twice as many, pushing to nearly $20,000 worth. But it wound up the legislators did not stop it. They got a surplus.”
Once that was discovered, Cummings said, he, along with Sheriff Danny Martin and Deputy Larry Miller, did an inventory of the commissary’s storage and found the e-cigs there. Now that the discrepancy was accounted for, Cummings said, the Jail fund should even out.
Cummings noted that e-cigarettes were sold from a company in Las Vegas for $3.50 each. Shipping costs add another fifty cents. The Nevada County Jail commissary sells them for $10 each. “And they [the inmates] smoke them just as fast as they can get them,” Cummings said.
During Judge Glass’ financial report, he said the Roads and Bridges fund was at $77,872.02. The fund for Solid Waste was $65,161.33. County General was $136,737.99 and the Jail fund was $25,961, with $9,811.97 in revenue received over the past month.
With JP Willie Wilson making the motion, which was seconded, the JPs voted unanimously to accept the County Judge’s report.
Near the end of the meeting, JP Chris Fore said the Laneberg Volunteer Fire Department would be putting on a political rally and hamburger cookout on Saturday, April 23, starting at 5 p.m. Anyone running for office is encouraged to speak. Fore said with increasing costs, small-town volunteer departments were relying all the more on what they could raise with local fundraisers.
Nevada County Extension Office Agent Stacey Stone reported that he had overseen the reorganization of a 4H Club chapter at Willisville. The one in Prescott, he said, had its first meeting of the year. He said the Master Gardeners Conference had gathered a “good crowd.” Meanwhile the county extension office was helping farmers save money on fertilizer through proper calibration of sprayers.
The twenty-minute meeting adjourned after Judge Glass noted the absence of new business.