The Knox County Board approved the purchase of a second K-9 for the Sheriff’s Department at their meeting last night.
The total cost is $5,000 to the county since the Sheriff’s Department already has much of the necessary equipment from when they received an $82,000 grant for their first K-9.
One of the reasons Sheriff David Clague saw the need for a second animal is a Supreme Court ruling from last year that says officers can only detain motorists for ten minutes, which sometimes doesn’t allow enough time to get the K-9 to the site.
The new K-9’s name is a Hexa, she’s a female black German shepherd.
Clague says that he’s been impressed by demonstrations he’s seen of the dog.
“After having received the grant money for the first dog, and how very successful that K-9 has been in the element of a time factor in making a traffic stop and getting that K-9 to respond, there was a great need to have another one,” Clague says.
Clague says the department can pick up Hexa as soon as today.
In other business, the board approved county employees 2015-16 Health Insurance Plan and for the third year in a row premiums haven’t been raised.
The board also officially hired Bellwether LLC to conduct a fee and employment study for $21,000.
Bellwether President Bruce Delashmit guaranteed board members the study would find at least five times his fee in untapped county fees and redundancies in personnel.
