Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995 TAG: 9501260045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The board gave a unanimous thumbs down to applying for a federal grant to help pay for hiring two new deputy sheriffs.
Supervisors worried that the grant program, part of Clinton's 1994 crime bill, could have left the county holding the bag financially. Also, they said the program doesn't fit rural Montgomery, because it places an emphasis on the more urban-style community policing.
Chief Deputy Dan Haga and crime prevention Deputy John Yon said they were not disappointed by the board's action. Yon, too, worried about community policing mandates that might have limited a deputy's patrol area.
Haga said the grant only would last three years, changing from 75 percent federal support the first year, to 50 percent in the second and 25 percent in the third. If the Board of Supervisors was unwilling to cover the entire cost in the fourth year, the new deputies would have had to be laid off, Haga said.
Also, in order to apply for a so-called COPS AHEAD grant, Montgomery would have had to hire the two entry-level deputies without any solid guarantee that it would win the grant, said Cindy Martin, county grants coordinator.
The deadline to apply for COPS AHEAD - COPS stands for Community Oriented Policing Services - is in mid-March and the U.S. Justice Department wouldn't notify grant winners until about three months later, she said. That means the county alone would be responsible for paying for the new deputies through the end of the budget year in June, since the grant would not be retroactive.
The resolution the board rejected would have committed $56,000 in local tax money to hire and equip the two deputies. That figure included $38,000 for two new police cars. Supervisor Nick Rush said such a commitment would eat up more than two-thirds of the county's budget for unplanned expenses in the remaining half of the fiscal year.
Other law-enforcement agencies in the New River Valley are pursuing similar grants, however. The Blacksburg Police Department is seeking funding for two new officers through a program designed for smaller jurisdictions. And the Radford police intend to apply for federal funds to cover overtime costs.
Blacksburg has already submitted an application for the COPS FAST matching grant program, designed for places with less than 50,000 population, said police Capt. Walter Mosby. (Montgomery County has a population of about 75,000, including Blacksburg's 34,600 residents, meaning it was ineligible for COPS FAST.)
Last month, the Town Council approved sending in the application to hire two new officers at a cost of $57,500 a year. The Justice Department would pay up to $150,000 for the officers' salaries over three years, leaving Blacksburg responsible for paying $22,464. After that, though, the town would have to cover the full cost. The town will be taking a second look at the program if its application is approved, said police Chief Bill Brown.
That's because the application went in before the town learned of the possible impacts of Gov. George Allen's budget cuts. One proposal to eliminate a form of aid for local law enforcement could cost Blacksburg as much as $321,544, or 11 percent of the Police Department budget, Brown said.
The Radford Police Department plans to apply to the related COPS MORE program, said Capt. Gary Harmon. It's designed to move sworn officers out of administrative positions and get them back onto the street. The Police Department intends to use the money to pay overtime, and will bring the application before the City Council in a few months, Harmon said.
by CNB