WREX.com – Rockford’s News LeaderOgle Co. Sheriff's Department looks at ways to cut expenses

Ogle Co. Sheriff's Department looks at ways to cut expenses

By Samantha Ptashkin

OREGON (WREX)- Ogle County needs to decrease its spending by 10% over the next two years and the Sheriff's Department is one of the first places it will look. It uses about half of the county's total budget. 
 

The county's finance committee wants to cut three percent from the budget this year, then seven percent the next. That three percent cut still needs to get ammended into this years budget, but the sheriff's department is already looking at ways to cut about $475,000. "I'm really concerned about what a financial crisis like this will do to this organization and how it will affect our ability to serve and protect the people of Ogle County," Sheriff Greg Beitel said. 

One of the ways the department plans to cut back is by eliminating a lot of officer training. In this year's budget there's about $67,000 for deputies to train at the FBI National Academy. In 2010 Beitel will have to cut that by more than half to help save the department $475,000. "I really, really think that cutting training is one of the last things we ought to be doing, but I know there's just certain areas where we can't take any money out," Sheriff Beitel said.

The department can also look to save money by forgoing new equipment purchases and reducing annual holidays, but that only saves just over $110,000. "Looking at the budget we're facing and having to come up with still yet another $365,000 in cuts at a minimum, that's nine deputies," Sheriff Beitel said.

If that happens Sheriff Beitel said the department "could potentially lose a very good contract we have with the U.S. Marshall'S service. We bring in about a million dollars in revenue from bringing in prisoners."

The Ogle County administrator says board members aren't asking any departments to make staff cuts right now.