DAYTON — Changes could be coming to the relationship between Montgomery County and Merchants Security Services as the county is now accepting bids for a new, long-term contract.
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Montgomery County Commissioners approved a temporary, two-month contract with the security service this week. However the county may not employ the service after that contract expires.
Montgomery County contracts Merchants for eight county buildings and one parking garage. Up until two weeks ago, the contract also provided prisoner watch services at local hospitals when an inmate was considered low risk and was admitted for medical procedures.
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The prisoner watch services were suspended June 1 after a deadly incident involving a Merchants security guard and a jail inmate receiving treatment at Miami Valley Hospital.
Brian Booth, 30, overpowered Darrell Holderman, 78, a Merchants security guard, at the hospital, Dayton police previously said. Booth was able to get Holderman’s gun, fired a shot that killed him, before Booth ran through the hospital, and died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside the emergency department.
The new, two-month contract with Merchants will include security services at the county buildings and parking garage. However the contract now excludes any prisoner watch duties.
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The county is now soliciting bids for a new contract that would start in August that could run from one to four years and be worth $800,000 a year.
When asked if the shorter contract had anything to do with the June 1 incident at Miami Valley Hospital, Montgomery County Director of Communications Deb Decker said the contract “was due to be renewed anyway or re-bid anyway.”
“This shorter contract is going to bridge us until we get to that one year contract,” Decker said.
Whichever service wins the long-term contract that starts in August will not have prisoner watch duties included as part of the expected services, county officials confirmed to News Center 7′s Mike Campbell.
Campbell reached out to a Merchants Security spokesperson for comment on the contract, or any comments on the June 1 incident, and he’s awaiting a response.
We’ll continue to update this story as we learn more.
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