The Starke County Council heard a request from Starke County Sheriff Bill Dulin Monday night to transfer money within his budgets to fund various needs.
He requested $23,665.56 to fund the retirement shortfall. The county has been in arrears with retirement for the past two years and in order to keep the police retirement fund with Morgan Stanley active, the shortage needs to be brought up to date by the end of the year. If the county is short three years in a row, it ceases.
Apparently, this is a shortfall seen around the state, according to Councilman Dave Pearman. The county council approved the additional appropriation from the Jail CEDIT fund for the amount requested.
Sheriff Dulin said there have been great strides in keeping the retirement shortfall in a small amount as it was over $250,000 a few years ago. $160,934 is what the county paid toward police retirement this year.
In other requests, Sheriff Dulin asked to transfer money for projects that were done outside of the $8,500 maintenance agreement.
“One compressor failed on the outside unit and was replaced this past summer,” explained Sheriff Dulin. “We had a temperature control unit installed in the IT room. Temperatures were well over 100 degrees and temperatures in that room cannot exceed 68 degrees. We ordered two fans for the walk-in freezer and refrigerator, installed a new timer in the steam table, and conducted preventative maintenance on refrigerators, ovens, ice maker, and warming tables to avoid future problems. Several leaks of Freon were found in the building and were repaired. The problem had been ongoing since the new boilers were installed.”
The council members approved the transfer of funds to cover those costs.
A $15,500 transfer was approved to help pay for liability insurance which will pay for the insurance on the squad cars while $17,350 went to extra help, patrolman and overtime costs.
Sheriff Dulin will be back in December to request funds for meals for inmates and other requests.
