MONTICELLO — The board of aldermen unanimously declared Tuesdaynight that they would not pay a processing fee at the LawrenceCounty Jail, but authorized another payment instead.

The jail processing fee surfaced last week when the countyappeared to give up on efforts to get the town to pay more fordispatching services and added a $20 processing fee to bookprisoners into the jail. If a prisoner stays overnight, anadditional fee of $5 would be assessed to book them out.

The town, however, will not pay the fee.

“There is no authorization for the sheriff’s department tocharge a processing fee,” said Mayor David Nichols, citing anAttorney General’s Office opinion.

According to the AG’s office, Nichols said, the town would alsobe in violation of the law if they pay the fee because they wouldbe paying an invalid claim.

Lawrence County Sheriff Joel Thames said county supervisors weregenerally unavailable this week while attending a summerconference, but in earlier conversations had indicated they wouldresearch the town’s claims.

“I have talked with the board and they’re going to get their ownopinion on whether or not (the processing fee is) legal,” hesaid.

Nichols said he was opposed to paying for services the sheriff’sdepartment was required to provide, because city residents alreadypay county taxes to support those services.

“They are required to process those prisoners, and it requiresno extra support to do that than they would normally have in thejail,” Nichols said. “Whether we send a prisoner down there or notthey will need a jailer and a dispatcher.”

Nichols and the board agreed that the town should not pay anymore than they are for jail services because of double taxation.Town residents already pay for the jail when they pay their countytaxes and each additional dollar given by the town out of thegeneral fund is a further tax burden on those residents, theysaid.

The fees are the latest in a series of verbal disputes betweensupervisors and aldermen about the city’s portion of jailfunding.

The sheriff’s office has repeatedly requested the city fund moreof the dispatching service to account for a $3,600 annualdifference in the amount the town pays and the amount it actuallycosts to fund a dispatcher.

The town has the money, county officials say, because when theenhanced 911 system was installed with the new jail, they were ableto dismantle their dispatching service and join with thecounty.

“The fact that we’re saving money now that we don’t have adispatcher is irrelevant,” said Ward Four Alderman Dick Reeves. “Wehad an agreement, which we didn’t even have to agree to, and we’reholding to it.”

The town currently pays for meal costs of inmates they arrestand the salary of a dispatcher plus 20 percent. The extrapercentage was originally designed to cover employee benefits, butnow falls short of fully funding a dispatcher because of insurancehikes and other factors.

He is not, however, unsympathetic to the sheriff’s need foradditional funding, Nichols said. He proposed paying a fee thatwould not be a form of double taxation.

“It is costing them more money to put that inmate in a uniform,”he said. “This is a legitimate cost they’re incurring on ourbehalf. I could live with a uniform fee of $7.50.”

The fee would be recovered with an up to $10 assessment on anycitation that requires a suspect to spend time in the jail, Nicholssaid. His recommendation was an assessment of $7.50.

The board agreed that was a reasonable solution.

“I feel like the county is going to keep trying things untilthey eventually get more money from us for the sheriff’s office inone way or another. This is a payment I can see making,” said WardTwo Alderman Steve Morman.

The board also stipulated that the county’s other municipalitieswould also have to be required to make the same payment. NeitherNew Hebron or Silver Creek currently support the dispatcherservice, although they benefit from it.

Thames said he appreciated the board’s understanding.

“It’s just one of the things the county has to pay for the city.I’ll adapt to whatever the boards agree to,” he said.