County budget cutting begins with conservation, sheriff, fair

The chopping has begun with the Plymouth County Supervisors starting cuts to make the 2011 budget work.

Tuesday, the board agreed to trim back dollars from requests made by county conservation, the sheriff, the county fair, the county libraries and the county museums.

The county conservation department will take the biggest hit -- $40,000 of Conservation Director Dennis Sohl's request was denied Tuesday.

His budget will still increase $9,244 from the previous year's allocation of $433,571 -- a 2.13 percent change.

However, the cut means Sohl most put off his plans to extend summer seasonal staff employment and to add a staff person after the opening of the ECO Center at Hillview Recreational Park near Hinton.

Despite having to cut $40,000 out of his 2011 budget, Sohl said the conservation department's service to the public will essentially remain the same.

"I understand the situation the county is in," Sohl said.

Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo saw the purchase of one sheriff's department vehicle cut from his budget request Tuesday.

Instead of purchasing two cars, each at $28,000, Van Otterloo will purchase one in the 2011 budget year and keep one of his current cars in rotation longer than usual.

The supervisors also decided to slash $5,000 from the Plymouth County Fair board's request of $15,000.

The $10,000 allocation this year is the same amount of dollars the supervisors gave the fair in 2006-07.

For the Plymouth County libraries, the supervisors cut the request by $3,000, going from $70,000 asked to $67,000, the same amount they received last year.

The historical society's request of $8,000 was trimmed back to $7,000, also a repeat of last year's dollars from the supervisors.

Supervisor Craig Anderson suggested making the three cuts, adding, "They're all things I like, they're all things I want to support. They're all worthwile causes."

The reasons for cutting back on expenses in the 2011 budget are manyfold.

With the recession, interest rates are low, meaning the county's accounts are drawing in less income to the tune of about $108,000 a year.

The Plymouth County Jail is housing about half the federal inmates it has in the past, meaning a drop in about $160,000 in revenue for the county this year as well.

None of the budget cuts discussed Tuesday are final at this time. Once budget work is done later this spring, the supervisors will host a public hearing and final vote to make the budget official.