MOUNT VERNON — The Knox County Commissioners reviewed a number of issues Thursday afternoon pertaining to costs and budgets. First, they met with Knox County Sheriff David Barber to review the end of the budget year for the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, which suffered some shortages in previous years.
“The budget looks pretty good for a change for this point in the year,” Barber said. He credited his staff and particularly his administrative assistant Jan Wasiluk with working hard to keep expenses as low as possible. Barber noted that contributions in this direction were the energy savings program implemented this year, which will be continued in 2009, the current dip in fuel prices, and restricting overtime wherever possible.
A grant funded by drivers license reinstatement fees and distributed by the Ohio Attorney General to support the local DARE program was also recently received.
The last large outstanding expenses of the year, yet to be received and processed, are the attorney fees from negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police over the new contract, and the arbitration bill for an employee grievance procedure held this fall.
The commissioners agreed that the numbers were looking good, even if the income from housing prisoners for Fairfield County wasn’t figured into the final balance. That money will function as revenue for the Sheriff’s Office.
Rob Clendening presented 2009 budget request figures for the Knox Soil and Water Conservation District, requesting a 3 percent increase in budget, from $352,755 to $357,840. In 2008, $178,900 of the budget came from Knox County, while $161,740 came from state matching funds, which can vary. Though matching funds have tended to run at 85 to 90 percent in recent years, Clendening said that as recently as 1990, matching funds were only 65 percent, so he conservatively estimated a matching figure of 76 percent, in hopes that the state will be able to come through with that much money.
Clendening also offered the commissioners a handout with statistics about the county often encountered in the KSWCD’s work. One notable figure was that $69,937,000 in agricultural receipts in Knox County in 2007 were dependent on soil and water, demonstrating both the value of farming in Knox County, as well as the value of conserving those resources.
Clerk of Courts Mary Jo Hawkins stopped by the commissioners to inform them that she and Sam Barone had entered into discussions with Tom Sutton about doing a major overhaul of the current facility Auto Titles and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles are housed in on Tilden Avenue, just off North Sandusky Street. Hawkins said that Sutton was willing to consider major renovations to keep the tenants in residence. Hawkins said that meanwhile she had cut every employee back by five hours a week in order to avoid laying an employee off, due to slow business, caused by the economic slump.
