Starke County Commissioners Withdraw Support for Full-Time Deputy Treasurer

Starke County Treasurer Linda Belork

It seems the Treasurer’s office will not be getting the full-time help they’ve been requesting, after all. At the Starke County Council Meeting on April 18, the council noted that after looking at newest budget figures, they noticed that they would be short of the amount needed to transfer in order to support another full-time employee in the Treasurer’s office because some of those funds do not exist in the Treasurer’s budget.

The Commissioners agreed with the council, withdrawing their support as well because of budgetary concerns. They did not anticipate the coming year, and the Commissioners do not believe they will have the $5600 necessary to contribute that they previously believed they had. Treasurer Linda Belork was not present and could not help the Council and the Commissioners determine if the funds were available in the budget or not.

“The only place we had to go was to withdraw our support at this time for it, because the funding is just not available, it’s our responsibilities to make sure what we create we can pay for, and we just can’t pay for this,” said Commissioner Dan Bridegroom.

The council passed a motion to accept the recommendation from the Commissioners and deny the full-time help requested by the Treasurer.

Bridegroom was asked if he expects to see a full-time deputy in the treasurer’s office in the near future.

“I do not personally see it there, she has part-time help money there. Her busy season is coming up, all the taxes are out right now. She has considerable amount of money there for a part-time person to go ahead and pay for with. I believe that will get her over the hump where she basically wouldn’t need it,” said Bridegroom.