During their first meeting of the new year, the Marshall County Commissioners approved the 2024 Sheriff’s Contract with Matt Hassel. The contract is exactly the same as last year with the exception of a raise. Sheriff Hassel will be paid $99,744.84 for his salary this year. The commissioners also approved the CASA (court-appointed special advocate)
The Marshall County Commissioners meet Monday at 8:30 in their second-floor meeting room of the County Building. The commissioners have a full agenda including an update on the Highway Department from Superintendent Jason Peters along with the quarterly report from the Council on Aging by Executive Director Janis Holiday. Jennifer Daake the county’s HR Administrator
During the public comment portion of the Commissioner’s meeting last week, Sheriff Matt Hassel and Zack McGugan discussed the purchase request of new software for 911 services. During the July 17th meeting, no one from the Sheriff’s Department attended the meeting and County Attorney Jim Clevenger brought forth an agreement for 911 service and software
In a response to several questions from WTCA, Marshall County Sheriff Matt Hassel responded about the outbreak of COVID-19 in the jail on Wednesday morning.
Hassel said, “Since the Emergency Declaration was issued for COVID-19 the jail has been operating under the CDC guidelines for residential treatment facilities. Basically the same as nursing homes and hospitals.” The sheriff said two weeks ago they had an inmate that was going to have a procedure done at the hospital but needed to be COVID tested before the procedure. The inmate tested negative on the rapid test, had no symptoms but tested positive in the laboratory test.
The Marshall County Council approved the request of Sheriff Matt Hassel and Highway Superintendent Jason Peters to waive the 90 percent pay for a new employee.
This week Sheriff Hassel told council members a part-time turnkey/dispatcher who has worked for the department since Nov. 2019 has been moved to full time.
Peters told the council he hired Howard Holcomb who already has his class A CDL license and is well qualified to be an area leader.
The council approved their requests. They also approved the Sheriff’s request to purchase a second K9 for the department.
Matt Hassel said they had planned to extend the K9 program for the last year-and-a-half but when COVID hit it took a back seat. Hassel said the new K9 dog was trained in Knox at Jager Elite K9 by Chad Dulin and is now available for purchase. The sheriff said the Marshall County Prosecutor is willing to help support the expansion financially.