Pulaski County’s insurance payout for a wrecked police vehicle is a bit less than previously expected. Sheriff Jeff Richwine previously announced that the county would get over $20,000 for a 2012 pickup truck that was totaled in an accident several months ago. Last week, he told the county council that the check will only end up being for about $17,000.
Now, Richwine says he isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do with that money. “Before, those monies had went back into a fund of ours,” he said, “and I think Laura has started putting them into the General Fund.” Council members believed the money was technically supposed to go into the county’s General Fund, but Auditor Laura Wheeler agreed to double check.
Richine also told the county council that his department’s Work Release Fund is experiencing some shortfalls. “What happened is, in the budget process, we took people out of the General Fund when we were trying to help out the General Fund,” he explained. “We put them in this Work Release Fund, and then with some of the trouble that we’ve had with a particular court, we’re not getting people in the Work Release Fund, so that fund’s kind of dried up on us. It is coming back again now, so that’s the good news.”
In the meantime, Richwine said he’s found money in some of the Sheriff’s Department’s General Fund line items that could be used to make up the shortfall. But he’s still checking to see whether money can legally be transferred from the General Fund to the Work Release Fund.
