Open Modal

Independence County Law Enforcement Committee discusses 2020 budgets Tuesday night

img_1301
Article by Teisha Bagwell, White River Now

Tuesday night, the Independence County Law Enforcement Committee met at the county courthouse to discuss projected budgets for 2020.

The committee irons out details and assists in preparing the budgets for the sheriff’s department, the jail, juvenile detention, Office of Emergency Management, emergency dispatch, and much more.

Most changes in the individual budgets on various offices and departments are to allocate for equipment upgrades and even pay raises.

The budget items are divided into three columns, A-C, with C being items that are on a “wish list,” such as raises or salaries for additional staffing. Not all departments or offices have items in column C, but most do.

The Juvenile Detention Center was placed entirely in column C due to the changes the facility has made in working to become a therapeutic facility. However, the future remains unclear for the facility due to the lack of program participants.

“The employees are well aware of the situation, we’re not hiding anything from anybody. It’s a sad situation when they’ve done a great job…Every person in that facility needs to be commended for what they have done in that facility. It’s an absolute crying shame to think all that effort, and all the greatness that’s been done could be undermined just simply cause they won’t put the kids in there in a timely manner,” said Independence County Judge Robert Griffin.

All budget items were motioned for approval and will move on to be presented to the quorum court for final approval.

Recommended Posts

Loading...