Department deactivates part-time deputy sheriffs

LISBON -- Columbiana County budget constraints already are taking a toll.
The county sheriff's department rendered inactive this week four part-time deputies that it activated about eight weeks ago to help out full-time deputies on Friday and Saturday nights.
The sheriff's office was allocated about $935,000 in this year's county general fund budget, adopted last week.
Last year, the sheriff's department spent about $1.4 million.
"We need to save as much money as we can," Pete Whitmore, chief sheriff's deputy, said this morning regarding the decision to no longer use the part-timers.
The part-time deputies were paid $11.08 an hour.
The sheriff's department's action comes after county commissioners adopted a 2002 general fund budget that curtails spending allocations for most county departments.
The streamlined budget, totaling nearly $14.3 million, pared about $2 million from this year's anticipated expenditures to keep the county in the black.
The cutbacks are necessary because overall county spending and expenses are outpacing revenues, commissioners have said.