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A/C failure leads to relocation of prisoners
Jamie Turners Fan w sm
Local businessman Jamie Turner helped cool the jail during this weekends air conditioner failure by loaning the sheriffs department a water-cooled fan to use while repairs are being made. The central unit at the jail was still being repaired at press time.
The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department had to find temporary quarters in other counties for some prisoners after one of the central air units at the jail quit working Friday.According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, jail personnel began to think something was amiss when the jail started heating up."On Friday evening, we noticed that the annex side of the jail was starting to heat up," the sheriff said. "We knew at that time that there was probably something wrong with the central heat and air unit.“We called a local central heat and air company to come up and check it. They found out that one of the motors in the air unit had burned up.”Ray said the unit may have been affected by power surges caused by a blown transformer.“We feel like this was due to the transformer blowing Thursday in the city limits of Smithville.