A former Umatilla County jail inmate’s medical treatment’s just cost taxpayers $168,026. And that was at 40 percent off.

The county board of commissioners Wednesday approved paying the tab to the Blue Mountain Kidney Center on the Umatilla Indian Reservation for providing dialysis treatment to 41-year-old inmate Dean Anthlone Pennie. Pennie was in the county jail from early January to May on multiple charges, including six counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and two of conspiracy to commit murder. He pleaded not guilty to all.

Pennie, of Bandon, was serving a three-sentence at Two Rivers Correctional Institution, Umatilla, for first-degree child neglect and manufacturing marijuana, according to Oregon Department of Corrections. While inside, according to the state, he plotted to murder a man and kidnap and assault a woman. Neither of his intended victims live in Umatilla County.

But because the state alleged he made the threats in the county, the Oregon Department of Corrections shipped Pennie to the county jail in Pendleton. Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan said Pennie arrived at the jail “with basically zero notice” and no mention from the prison that he required dialysis three times a week. The county jail does not have an in-house dialysis machine, unlike state prisons.

So those trips under armed guard to the dialysis center cost about $40,000 a month, Rowan said, and the county jail had only budgeted $150,000 for outside medical expenses.

Pennie’s medical needs were a threat to the budget, so Rowan and staff searched for alternatives. Pennie was in jail, so he could not get heath insurance, a law that will change in 2015. Pennie also could not go back and get treatment at Two Rivers because he remains innocent of the new charges.

Rowan said his office, the district attorney and Coos County, where Pennie lived, reached a deal to transfer him out of Umatilla County. Pennie is now under electronic surveillance in a halfway house in Portland, Rowan said, and that allowed the Oregon Health Plan to cover Pennie.

Pennie was gone, but the county had yet to pay his medical bill. Rowan said he was expecting to pay that off at $40,000 a month. Last week, the bill arrived.

“I got this package, one bill,” Rowan said, “– and its 280-some-odd-thousand dollars.”

The gobsmacked sheriff said he huddled with staff to find a way to whittle down the tab. Undersheriff Jim Littlefield negotiated with Blue Mountain Kidney Center, Rowan said, which agreed to slash 40 percent of the bill for a one-time payment of $168,026.

Umatilla County Commissioner Larry Givens said that was a good an offer as they were going to get, so the board took it.

Rowen said he was thankful for the center’s generosity, but finding solutions to housing inmates like Pennie and dealing with extreme medical costs for inmates remain challenges.