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Columbiana County gives good report on sales taxes
The sheriff has told deputies to reduce fuel usage.
LISBON — Columbiana County officials have some good news nearly halfway through the year.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel and Auditor Nancy Milliken said that the county’s sales taxes are $126,000 ahead of the same time last year.
The income is for the first three months of 2008.
Hoppel and Milliken said that while that’s good, they’re not planning to increase spending.
“We’re going to be very cautious with the last six months of the year,” Hoppel said.
Milliken said that the county is seeing a drop in some fees. People are not buying homes, which will reduce ownership conveyance fees.
Sheriff David Smith has ordered deputies to conserve gasoline. Deputies drove a total of 14,797 miles in May.
Deputies were told to turn off their cruisers while on complaints or while parked. Deputies were also told to shut off their cruisers for at least 15 minutes an hour if nothing was going on, and to avoid needless trips.
Deputies buy gasoline from specified gas stations, and they were told to check the prices.
Midnight shift deputies, who may have to race across the county, were told to keep their mileage under 100 miles a night.
The commissioners also approved contracts with four transportation companies that take people on a nonemergency basis to doctors or medical facilities.
The four are Transit Services of Youngstown, the Community Action Agency of Columbiana County, Change Inc. of Weirton, W.Va., and Total Transportation of Toronto, Ohio. The program runs from July 1 to June 30, 2009.
Eileen Dray-Bardon, the head of the county’s Department of Job Family Services, said fuel costs are not an issue.
For the year ending June 30, her agency spent $856,451 in transportation costs.
There is no ceiling to the spending, she said. The cost of transporting the clients, no matter what the cost of fuel, is sent to the state, which forwards the bills to the federal government for payment.
wilkinson@vindy.com