Todd County Fiscal Court approved upgrading the county’s Code RED Alert System at Friday’s meeting and heard an update from the Todd County Jail.
Currently, someone has to manually input any warnings, such as severe weather alerts—including tornado warnings—into the Code RED system, which then sends it out to all those who are enrolled in the program. Todd County Emergency Management Director Daniel Smith says the new upgrade would allow those alerts to go out automatically when a warning is issued by the National Weather Service, saving valuable time.
It does come with an additional cost, but Smith says they can choose to discontinue it when it comes time to make a new budget, if they feel they’re not getting their money’s worth.
Magistrates approved the upgrade unanimously.
There are currently 123 inmates lodged in the Todd County Jail, with 107 of them classified as state inmates. Jailer Jeff Penick asked the magistrates to contact local senators and ask them to include funding for the jail educational programs that benefit inmates in the budget, as the funding for those programs is set to end with this current budget cycle.
In other action, magistrates also approved moving forward with applying for a grant from the state to seek funding for road paving, using rubber-modified asphalt.