The Starke County Commissioners discussed a shortfall in the budget for security during their meeting Monday night.
There is a $28,000 shortfall in the budget to pay security officers for the remainder of the year. Currently, there are two part-time security officers that are on duty during the hours the county buildings are open. The commissioners feel this is adequate coverage.
Commissioner Kathy Norem commented that money was struck from the 2020 budget from the council for only one part-time officer at a time on duty. Norem indicated that all three commissioners feel that having only one officer for all county buildings is unrealistic.
Norem stated, “We did look at our budgets and we can pay for that out of CEDIT. We’ll have to ask the council to approve that and we certainly hope they do because we support that strongly and feel that is necessary.”
The budget for security is $56,000 for the year which is paid for out of the Jail CEDIT, but it is not enough to cover the cost of two officers on duty.
Commissioner Bryan Cavender noted that this issue will come up again in 2021 as the security budget is the same as 2020.
The commissioners voted to take that $28,000 appropriation to the council for approval at an upcoming meeting.
