Sheriff to supervisors: Department needs more staff

The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department could use three more deputies and two more dispatchers to avoid employee burnout and turnover, Sheriff Scott Anderson said last week.
Anderson met Oct. 10 with the Board of Supervisors, presenting them with a letter explaining why his department was likely to exceed its budget for this year, and why he would like to see a significant budget increase for next year, to allow for more employees.
“We have really quality guys who can get paid a lot more and do a lot less elsewhere,” Anderson said.
Supervisor Mike Cooper said he would expect the Sheriff’s Department to need a $500,000 increase to its $1.5 million budget to cover adding that many employees and related benefits. The problem with such an increase, supervisors said, is that they would need to decrease Rural Services Funding – which comes from the state and which the county uses for Secondary Roads, Sheriff’s Department and library expenses – to other departments. Those decreases are a tough sell, supervisors said.
“It’s a problem for rural counties,” Supervisors Chairman Scott Jacobs said. 
Read more in the Oct. 18 edition.