One deputy back to work, more could soon follow

So far one laid off Whitley County Sheriff’s deputy has been brought back to work, and county officials hope to restore about 30 percent of the funds cut to the sheriff’s department this fiscal year by the end of September.
Whitley County Sheriff Lawrence Hodge said Monday afternoon that Deputy Dennis Foley returned to paid duty Saturday.
On July 1, Hodge laid off seven deputies, including Foley, and one office worker due to budget cuts by the fiscal court.
The fiscal court budgeted $163,000 contribution to the sheriff’s department for this fiscal year, which was a cut of nearly $124,930 compared to what had been budgeted the previous fiscal year. The fiscal year started July 1.
Hodge said he is still waiting to see what kind of funding that the fiscal court will come up with before he can decide how many deputies come back to work.
“We were scheduled to pay them $27,160 after two months, but we have already paid $47,540, and I anticipate making an additional $14,000 payment by the end of September, which will give them an additional $35,000 above the $163,000 that we had budgeted,” Foley said.
He added that the $27,160 isn’t an advance to the department, but money beyond what was initially budgeted this fiscal year.
By the end of September, Foley plans to restore about 30 percent of the funds, which had been cut. By the end of the fiscal year, Foley hopes to restore another 20 percent of the sheriff’s budget, if it is economically feasible.
“This would give them back 50 percent of the budget that we cut them by the end of my term,” Foley said adding it would be up to his successor to decide if it was economically feasible to restore the remainder of the funding.
Foley said the revenue projections for October, November, and December look good, but that he won’t commit any additional funding at this time to the sheriff’s department for those months.
“In October, if monies are available, we will continue to try and get them back to the $124,000 that we cut them out of our budget, our contribution that we cut them out of the budget,” Foley said. “If that is feasible, and we can balance the rest of the county’s business, it will certainly be done.
“If it is not feasible, and we can’t balance the rest of the county’s business, it won’t be done. We are taking it on a month by month basis right now. We want them working, and we need them working, but by the same token, we have to do this in accordance to the monies we have available.”
Since the layoffs, Hodge said that some of his laid off deputies have been working on a volunteer basis.
“These boys are still volunteering their time free because of all the burglaries. They are tired of seeing people getting robbed, so they have come out and are donating their time to try and slow some of this stuff down,” Hodge said.
Laid off deputies include Scott Lake, Glenn Bunch, Ben Hodge, Josh Meadors, Troy Sharp, and Keith Smith. Another deputy had already quit to take a job with another department prior to the layoffs.
Foley said he appreciates the effort Hodge has made to keep the department running with the layoffs.
“He has some people volunteering. He has some guys serving some papers, so he is making an effort, which is good to see. We will not budge unless we have the monies available. We are not going to write blank checks. We just are not going to do it,” Foley said.