Lake County extends police protection for Winfield

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Updated: November 10, 2011 4:48PM

CROWN POINT — Now that the skirmishes over payment for police protection are well in the past, Winfield and Lake County are once again happy with each other.

The town not only wanted to renew its contract with the county for the Sheriff’s Police to provide police protection for another year, from Nov. 1, 2011, to Dec. 31, 2012, it offered to up the payment by $10,000, to $110,000 for the year,

Sheriff John Buncich told the Lake County Board of Commissioners at its Wednesday morning meeting. The commissioners voted unanimously to extend the contract.

The county provided police protection for the growing town for years, even after it was incorporated, but officials more recently insisted the community pay for those services.

The commissioners on Wednesday also voted unanimously to award Ontario, Ore.-based Telmate LLC a five-year phone service contract for the jail.

Among the services Telmate will provide is paying the inmates for unused phone service with debit cards instead of checks in order to avoid fraud.

The company will also pay the county back 56 percent of its gross revenue; PCS, with whom the sheriff’s office terminated its contract in March, paid the county 47 percent.

In other business, the commissioners voted 2-1, with Commissioner Fran DuPey opposed, to transfer a parcel of property at 4232 Baring Ave. back to East Chicago.

DuPey objected because of a dispute the commissioners had with the city over another parcel.

“We’ve been awfully generous with them,” DuPey said before dissenting.

The action caused County Attorney John Dull to explain that the commissioners have nothing to do with land transfers and tax sales.

“There are four ways in which a person can deal with their property: Pay your money, enter into a payment agreement with the treasurer’s office, go to Circuit Court or let it go (in a tax sale),” Dull said.