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The Washington County Budget Board met on Wednesday afternoon to create an account for Washington County Emergency Management to make a purchase from the County's CARES Act funding.

County Clerk Annette Smith told the Board that she would create another account within the CARES Act funds. She said $7,100 would go from the General Government Budget to the WCEM's Capital Outlay.

WCEM Director Kary Cox said the funds would go towards the purchase of 12 portable UV decontamination units. Cox said they already have two of the units in stock, which makes for a total of 14 units. He said the devices would be spread out to all of the County-owned buildings except for the Detention Center in Bartlesville.

For the devices to fully function, Cox said a room(s) would have to be unoccupied for a certain period of time. This is the reason why Cox said the devices would never work in the jail.

Cox said the portable UV decontamination units have two functions: UV and ozone. When the units are running with the ozone function on, Cox said no one can be in the room. He said the room needs an hour at minimum to recover once the machine shuts off before anyone can occupy the space.

Commissioner Mitch Antle said they would look into a UV lighting system for the jail's air conditioning units. Sheriff Scott Owen and WCEM's Kary Cox said they're tracking an estimate for this system to see whether or not Washington County needs to bid on this item. Cox said the lights would be installed in the return air system behind the filter. He said they install the lights in this fashion to prevent key components to the HVAC units from being exposed and damaged by the UV lights.

The Washington County Budget Board approved the reappropriation of CARES Act funds to allow Washington County Emergency Management to purchase the UV decontamination units.