Upshur County — Upshur County commissioners on Thursday afternoon unanimously ordered Sheriff Anthony Betterton to continue buying food for the county’s jail inmates with the knowledge that the county will begin purchasing food through a legal bidding process beginning Dec. 31.

Commissioners called the emergency meeting Thursday to discuss food for jail inmates after Betterton said he might have to ship inmates to other jails because county Auditor Janice Tucker refused to pay bills for inmate food after becoming aware this past month that the county had not been in compliance with state standards for how jail food must be bid.

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