In case of disaster, the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office has a couple of new plans in place for handling inmates at the Freeborn County jail.

The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners approved two agreements on Tuesday morning dealing with inmates during disaster situations.

The first agreement was between the Sheriff’s Office and the Albert Lea Bus Co. If a natural disaster, riot, fire or other “unforeseen circumstances” would occur, making the jail unable to house inmates, the bus company would transport inmates to other jails in Steele, Mower and Faribault counties.

The second contract approved was with Steele, Mower and Faribault counties to house Freeborn County inmates under those circumstances. On the flip side, Freeborn County would house inmates from those counties if an emergency happened making their jails uninhabitable.

Marcellino Peña, Freeborn County jail administrator over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract, said these new contracts essentially replace one old contract that included both the bus company and these surrounding counties. He said the main difference in the new contracts are that the bus company is now under its own agreement.

“It’s mandatory under the ICE agreement that we have something in place,” Peña said.

Under the agreement with the bus company, the Sheriff’s Office would be responsible for paying for any damage to equipment done by inmates while on the buses. All fees charged by the bus company would be paid for from the budget of the Sheriff’s Office, and paid out at the going rate that the bus company would be charging at that time.

The mutual aid agreement with the surrounding counties says that the facility hosting the inmates would be responsible for any damages done. That means if Freeborn County inmates damaged another county’s jail, that jail would be responsible for the damages rather than Freeborn County.

A step-by-step how-to was also outlined in the agreement, should such a circumstance arise. In the case that the Freeborn County jail would not be able to house its inmates, the sheriff or jail administrator would first contact surrounding counties to find out about the availability at those facilities. The bus company would be contacted, detention officers and road deputies would be given proper direction and the inmates would be transported.

Once the Freeborn County jail was again deemed safe for housing, the same steps would be followed to return the inmates.

Peña said a special operations response team, made up of 11 jailers at the Freeborn County jail, have taken special training and practiced these emergency procedures during fire drills. This team was formed in December, after seven months in the making.

Peña said Freeborn County is the first among Faribault, Steele and Freeborn counties to form this team. He said it’s a benefit to have this team and emergency procedures in place not only for the safety of jailers and inmates in Freeborn County, but also the taxpayers.

“By having the team minimizes any disturbances, should a situation arise, that could become expensive to taxpayers in damages to the building and lawsuits from injuries,” he said.

Commissioners approved both agreements unanimously. Both agreements are 10-year contracts that could be terminated by any of the other parties with a 90-day written notice.

In additional business, the board:

• Recognized retiring members of the Freeborn County Planning Commission. Retiring members were Jerry Epland, Gordon Toenges and William Goette. Freeborn County Planning and Zoning Administrator Wayne Sorenson presented plaques to Goette and Toenges for six years of service and Epland for four years of service.

• Approved the plan and authorized signature of the plat for the expansion of Shady Oaks Cemetery, located south of County Road 17 near Upper Twin Lake.

• Set a workshop for commissioners to meet with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency officials at 8:30 a.m. on March 22.

• Appointed Brenda Wickman to fill the final vacancy on the Freeborn County Extension Services Advisory Board.