Stark County jail, road dept. go over budget
An increase in local inmates at the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center caused the jail to go over its 2011 budget, officials said Wednesday.
- Commission
An increase in local inmates at the Southwest Multi-County Correction Center caused the jail to go over its 2011 budget, officials said Wednesday.
The Stark County Commission approved budget amendments during a meeting Wednesday morning.
The jail’s budget came up $78,395 more than estimates, said Kay Haag, county auditor. Money will be taken out of the county’s general fund to cover the additional spending, she added.
“The budget preparation has become very difficult because the costs are increasing for all of the counties,” SWMCCC financial administrator Connie Monson said. “It’s just that we’ve housed that many more people.”
Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Hettinger and Slope counties also house inmates at SWMCCC.
Stark County inmates spent 10,071 days at SWMCCC from January to November 2011, versus 8,320 days during the same time period in 2010, Monson said.
However, the billed days of federal inmates dropped substantially from 2010 to 2011, she said. From January to November this year, SWMCCC billed the federal government for 1,036 days, compared to 6,829 during the same period in 2010, Monson said.
The decrease is likely due to the federal work release system SWMCCC is involved in, she said. The program tries to get inmates who are transitioning out of prison back to the areas they are originally from to ease adjustment, Monson said.
The jail wasn’t the only fund that needed more money than planned for.
Several unbudgeted road improvement projects caused the Stark County Road Department to go $805,714 over budget on the unorganized road and bridge fund, said Al Heiser, county road superintendent.
Money will be transferred from the county highway distribution fund to cover the unbudgeted expenses, Haag said.
She added the county, as a whole, remains in the black.
In other matters:
r Heiser will be updating subdivision policies to require developers to put proper signage in place.
r Stark County Emergency Manager Bill Fahlsing will do emergency siren maintenance and may install additional sirens in 2012.
Tags: stark county, southwest multi-county correction center, news, budget, spending, fund
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