Cost for inmate meals may rise for Yuma County

Yuma County may be spending more per meal for its jail inmates – 1.3 cents more, to be exact.

The food services provider at the county jail wants to renew its contract with the sheriff's office for another year, and is requesting a new price of $1.082 per meal up from the current $1.069 a plate. The vendor, Phoenix-based Canteen Correctional Services, is seeking the penny increase to cover the rising cost of goods and labor. Jail meals here number about 1,500 daily.

Canteen has worked with Yuma County since 2007. The Yuma County Board of Supervisors will take the contract renewal to a vote at its meeting Monday morning.

Also on the supervisors' agenda is the three-year extension of County Administrator Robert Pickels' employment contract.

According to the contract, Pickels, who answers to the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, would be paid a base salary of $165,000 per year and be expected to be on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Fringe benefits would include a $600 per month car allowance and 33 days (or 264 hours) of accrued paid time off per year.

Pickels currently earns an annual base salary of $149,800. It has not changed since 2009.

If approved, the contract would run through March 2016. Pickels, an attorney by trade, has been Yuma County Administrator since 2008.

In other agenda items, the supervisors may also set a hearing date to take public comment on proposed amendments to the Justice Court fee schedule.

Proposed new “Justice Court Enhancement Fees” include $10 on all civil complaints and small claims to include eviction actions, and $10 for civil traffic offenses resulting in default judgments (due to a defendant's failure to appear). The proposal also includes upping the fee for a person found guilty of a criminal traffic or misdemeanor offense from $10 to $20.

The court hopes to set the comment session for April 15.

The meeting will also include a hearing for the establishment of several stretches of county roadways. The roads include:

• Avenue 38E: County 8th Street to County 7th Street

• Old Agua Caliente Road (Avenue 76E); Antelope-Palomas Road (Hyder Road) southeasterly to Maricopa County

• Avenue 15E, South Frontage Road to City 56th Street (County 14th Street)

• Calle Del Cid; Camino Del Sol to Rancho Del Oro (Mesa Del Sol)

• County 9th Street; Avenue 35E to Avenue 36E

• Avenue 36E; Old Highway 80 to County 8th Street

• Antelope-Palomas Road (Hyder Road); Old Agua Caliente Road (Avenue 76E) east to Maricopa County

• County 8th Street; Mohawk Valley Road to Avenue 37E

• Payson Drive; South Frontage Road to 36th Street

• City 34th Street (both halves); Payson Drive west roughly 660 feet

• City 36th Street (north half); Payson Drive west roughly 2,527 feet

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Supervisors Auditorium, 198 S. Main St.

Hillary Davis can be reached at hdavis@yumasun.com or 539-6857. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSHillaryDavis or on Twitter at @YSHillaryDavis.