The town of Kimberly will soon be saving thousands of dollars by contracting out its jail operations.

On Tuesday, the Kimberly Town Council voted to have the Warrior Police Department take over its jail and dispatching services. Attorneys for both cities are still working out some details concerning terms and conditions.

“We will save several thousands of dollars a month,” said Kimberly Mayor Craig Harris.

He said it costs the city an average of $6,000 to $6,500 a month to operate the jail and pay dispatchers. Kimberly will pay Warrior $1,500 a month to take over those operations.

Some of Kimberly’s part-time dispatchers also work for the Warrior Police Department as dispatchers, so no one will lose a job in the transaction, Harris said.

Kimberly will retain a dispatcher to work day shift at the Kimberly Police Department and handle clerk duties.

“After hours and weekends, all dispatching will be out of Warrior,” Harris said.

Kimberly Police Chief James Belding said another part-time dispatcher will handle calls during the day shift on weekends, but Kimberly will eventually phase that position out to Warrior as well.

Belding said having inmates stay at another facility would ease much of the workload from his department, in addition to saving the city money.

The Kimberly Police Department has four jail cells. According to Harris, those cells will be converted into storage space and extra work space for employees.

He said the cells will not be dismantled, because the agreement with Warrior has a cancellation clause.

“We will need to be able to restart the jail within 90 days” if either city cancels the contract, Harris said.

In other business, the council:

• voted to obtain a loan from Region’s Bank for repairs to Mosley Loop

• tabled a vote on repairing the air conditioning unit at the Kimberly Community Center in order to receive more bids

• tabled approving an estimate to paint portions of Kimberly Town Hall in order to receive more bids.