Marshall County Commissioners on Friday approved the Sheriff’s Office budget estimate for 2018 in a special-called fiscal court meeting in Benton.
Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars presented the anticipated $1.41 million budget, of which revenues were expected to total about $1,393,625 in addition to a $20,000 highway safety grant. The lion’s share of receipts for the year, according to the budget worksheet, came from tax revenues estimated to total about $550,000. School property taxes accounted for about $340,000 of total revenues in the budget, while court security fees accounted for $75,000. Arrest fees were estimated to account for about $11,000; delinquent tax fees from the county clerk’s office were budgeted for about $30,000; automobile inspections accounted for $15,000 of the total; reports, fingerprinting and photo services were expected to bring in about $4,000; civil service fees accounted for $50,000; school resource officer reimbursement totaled $45,000; concealed carry deadly weapons permits were expected to bring in about $13,000; prisoner transport appropriations totaled $20,000; and Kentucky Law Enforcement Foundation Program Fund revenues were budgeted at $100,000.
See the full appropriations budget here.
The entirety of those funds — $1,413,625 total — were set for disbursement back to the fiscal court, according to the budget.
In addition to the sheriff’s 2018 budget, which must be submitted to the Department of Local Government by Jan. 15, the court approved the annual pay and maximum overtime allotment to MCSO personnel, including deputies, administrative staff and court security. Commissioners approved up to $1,515,000 in department pay, of which total annual base pay department-wide accounted for $1,219,559. The department was approved for up to 4,000 hours of overtime pay, with administrative employee overtime not to exceed 1,000 hours and court security overtime to remain within 250 hours.
Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars said he worked with County Treasurer Emily Martin and interim Treasurer Brenda Edwards on establishing a budget and payroll/overtime plan for the year. Byars expressed his appreciation toward Martin in particular, who has been on temporary leave since a car accident in early December left her injured and took the life of her husband, Brent Martin, and another passenger in the vehicle.
“I want to say I appreciate Emily’s efforts on this, I know it’s been a trying time for her,” Byars said. “She done an excellent job, and I just want to acknowledge that. She went above and beyond in my opinion on that.
“We got together, we were within a few thousand dollars of each other,” Byars added. “So, we’re getting better at it, we’ll put it that way.”
See the full deputy hire breakdown here.
In other business, the court:
* Desiree Hermosillo will fill in for Lacey Maziarka as administrative assistant in the Economic Development office during her maternity leave at a rate of $9 per hour;
* Judge-Executive Kevin Neal selected Mac McDonald and Treston Smith as the two remaining members of the County Industrial Park Board. Both will be sworn in next week, Jan. 10 at the next board meeting;
* Wendy Greer, Marshall County Road Department superintendent, was recognized after completing the University of Kentucky Technology Transfer Program Roads Scholar program. Greer was one of 165 “roads scholars” and 144 “road masters” who attended classes on topics such as low-cost roadway safety improvements, leadership skills and drainage. Road scholar certification required 54 training hours to complete. Those who completed road master courses took an additional 42 hours of training;
* The State Local Debt officer approved a loan up to $625,000 from the Kentucky Rural Water Association Finance Corporation to the fiscal court for infrastructure improvements to the Marshall County Sanitation District;
* The court approved a maximum allotment of $1,515,000 toward deputy, court security and administrative personnel base pay and overtime expenses for 2018; and
* Approved a $500,000 transfer from occupational tax funds into the road fund and a $100,000 transfer from occupational tax into the jail fund.