Douglas County Sheriff’s officials are testing an X-Ray machine weekly as it sits in storage to avoid having to pay reactivation charges.

The $30,000 machine, paid for by a Homeland Security grant, arrived this summer at the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St. The machine carried a label saying it had to be installed within three months to avoid “regeneration” fees, but it can’t be installed yet because the sheriff’s office doesn’t have the deputies to staff it.

Lt. Kari Wempe, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said testing the machine regularly will keep the department from having to pay the unknown amount of regeneration costs. It will be at least early next year before the machine is up and running. The County Commission has added two deputies’ jobs to the sheriff’s budget with the security station in mind, but the money doesn’t kick in until January.