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The jail is unfrozen.

Six months after the Routt County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to implement a hiring freeze on all county positions, they again voted unanimously to give the Routt County Sheriff's Office leeway to hire replacements for outgoing Routt County Jail deputies.

When Routt County Sheriff Gary Wall and Undersheriff Dave Bustos asked the commissioners for a temporary freeze exemption to replace an outgoing jail sergeant, the commissioners said that for mandatory jailers, it makes more sense for the sheriff to be able to fill positions quickly.

Noting that the jail positions must be filled 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Commissioner Doug Monger said that to require the Sheriff's Office to request a freeze exemption for each position that becomes vacant "wastes all of our time."

The delay of asking for the commissioners' permission to fill the vacant spaces "causes lag time, which may be problematic for them and causes overtime, which we have discouraged," Commissioner Nancy Stahoviak said.

The commissioners said the request from Wall, coupled with a jail personnel study commissioned by the sheriff, encouraged them to fill the jail deputy positions quickly.

The report, from Voorhis Associates, of Lafayette, has not been released pending redaction of security details, but County Manager Tom Sullivan said the report basically stated that the jail was near the minimum number of employees needed to run the facility and that a pool of potential applicants should be available, especially considering the three months of training required for jail deputies.

The jail position was vacated when Sgt. Mike Baumann, one of three sergeants, retired after 18 years on the job.

The freeze exemption request stated that the jail has never been operated with fewer than three sergeants, and the office is looking for an experienced deputy for the job.

"We have some great young employees, but the majority of our detention deputies have less than three years' experience : and we feel it is important that they have proper supervision," it states.

The jail and the Routt County Communications Department have received regular exemptions for the freeze, and the commissioners indicated that they would be willing to give a blanket exemption to the communications employees, as well.

The countywide freeze was put in place Feb. 10, disallowing any new hires for all county departments in response to the budget crunch.