Starke County Sheriff Bill Dulin presented several ordinance amendments to put more teeth into enforcement.
Dulin suggested fines for dogs running at large. He said the sheriff’s department received 477 phone calls concerning dogs running at large and he believes it will be beneficial to impose fines for repeat calls to a residence. The Starke County Humane Society would impound the dog if several complaints are received. County Attorney Marty Lucas will review the document and legal terms.
A new ordinance presented by the sheriff would require homeowners and business owners with alarm systems to install or update their system to be more efficient. Dulin said the sheriff’s department was called to 877 alarm calls in 2018.
“We’re running a Signal 10 which is lights and sirens to these alarms which we respond to them as burglary in progress and we get there and we find out it’s nothing,” explained Dulin. “We usually run those as top priority calls over other calls except accidents. I do have a vendor that would install software and help us run the system. We could collect the fines and fees and whatnot out of that.”
A golf cart ordinance amendment would fine a Bass Lake or Koontz Lake resident $25 who asks to register a golf cart outside of the active registration time from April to June.
Those ordinance amendments will be reviewed by the county attorney who may have recommendations for the commissioners at the next meeting.
One item the commissioners did approve Monday night was a motion to support the transfer of $5,000 from the Therapeutic Community Miscellaneous line item out of the sheriff’s budget to a drug buy line item so officers have money available to conduct investigations. The matter will go before the Starke County Council members on Feb. 18.
Two more ordinances will be presented to the commissioners in future meetings that deal with excessive noise and an inmate booking fee.
