COLUMBIANA COUNTY Officials to provide extra money needed for sheriff's department

Deputies are being required to do more, the sheriff said.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A funding shortage won't be shutting down the sheriff's department.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel said Tuesday that officials will come up with the $50,000 Sheriff Dave Smith said his department needs to meet payroll until year's end.
The money is expected to be gathered from other county departments that haven't spent their entire 2003 funding allocation, Hoppel explained.
Smith said escalating payroll costs, particularly for overtime, forced him to seek more money.
Nearly $1.7 million was earmarked for his department in this year's budget. About $1.2 million of that was for salaries.
Besides the $50,000 more that's about to be provided, commissioners have, over the course of the year, transferred from the general fund to the sheriff's department about $66,000 beyond the original allocation. About $13,000 of the $66,000 was for salaries, Commissioner Sean Logan has said.
The sheriff's overtime costs have risen by about $20,000 this year to total about $80,000, Smith said.
More overtime is needed partly to meet the demands of a new law that requires people living within 1,000 feet of a convicted sex offender to be notified, Smith said.
Deputies handle that chore, which must be repeated each time the offender moves.
"They move quite frequently," Smith said, adding that he isn't sure why. "We're doing multiple notifications for one sex offender, and that adds to the overtime bill."
Also boosting overtime are homeland security chores.
Whenever the federal government elevates the risk level, deputies scrutinize potential terrorist targets in the county such as water supplies, Smith said. If the risk level remains heightened, which it has for much of the year, the checks are done regularly, which demands more deputy time, he said.
Adding full-time employees would be more expensive than paying overtime, once salary, benefits, retirement and training costs are considered, the sheriff said.