A new washing machine for the Pulaski County Jail will end up costing the county over $12,000.
Sheriff Jeff Richwine told the county council last week that the machine’s placement in the justice center tripled the cost. “I thought, ‘Holy smokes, surely a washing machine doesn’t cost $12,000,’ but this washing machine sits on the first floor,” he explained. “If when we built the place, they’d have put it in the basement, we could have got away with a $4,000 machine. And the machines are really the same. Why this one costs so much is it has to sit on a thing that absorbs all the vibration.”
Richwine said the jail’s original washing machine has stopped working after 20 years. Council member Mike Tiede asked if the base of the old machine could simply be reused for the new one. “No, it’s all one big piece,” Richwine replied.
To pay for the new washing machine, council members approved a transfer of $12,085 from five different line items in the Sheriff’s Department’s budget into Furniture and Fixtures.
