By Mark Waite
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office is applying for a $160,000 grant to pay the salaries of two, current, full-time narcotics detectives and a part-time administrative technician, which will require a $97,200 county match.
The stated purpose of the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program allows states and local governments to support activities to prevent and control crime and improve the criminal justice system.
The funding is for one year, the sheriff’s department has to reapply every year. The sheriff’s office has three narcotics detectives on staff.
Nye County is already funding six deputies with a Community Oriented Policing System COPS grant. U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced $1.14 million in funding for five deputies for three years last September, the county will be on the hook to pay the $420,000 in salaries the fourth year. That is after a June 2011 award announcement of $223,751 for one deputy, which will require a $83,500 county match the fourth year.
The sheriff’s department is also applying for a 2012-13 Office of Traffic Safety Joining Forces grant that pays for overtime for enhanced enforcement of traffic laws. The county is asking for $12,000 and will have to pay $2,000.
The Selective Traffic Enforcement Program STEP will be an intense enforcement effort involving officers from various agencies who will target motorists who are speeding, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, using cell phones while driving, not wearing seat belts or not buckling up toddlers in child safety seats. The application states the STEP will be active twice during the coming year.
Commissioners also approved a $21,629 contract with Frontier Communications to convert the Nye County Motorola Smart Zone 4.1 radio system to narrow band capabilities, as required by the Federal Communications Commission.
They also allocated $20,000 to paint and replace graphics on 20 sheriff’s patrol cars using county labor. The request from Lt. Frank Jarvis states 11 vehicles in the fleet have paint peeling off in noticeable areas, nine more have graphics that faded to the point they are no longer reflective and nearly unreadable.
Commissioners also added another $100,000 to pay for attorneys required to supplement the public defender in cases where the public defender has a conflict or there are multiple defendants.
Nye County already budgeted $350,000 for it during this fiscal year.
“At this time that budget has been exhausted due to the high number of large cases through both the justice courts and the district courts,” Nye County Comptroller Susan Paprocki said in her request.
The $450,000 is on top of the $550,000 annually paid to public defenders for the law firm of Gibson and Kuehn as part of a five-year contract that expires in 2014.
Just keep spending! Just because it’s not county taxes, it’s still tax money! After showing the sheriff is already over the budget by 771k I say no way.
Hey, I will give them a break on the cars.. they do look rather worn down. Perhaps a local company can give them a deal. I know a lot of very good painters in town that could do it cheap AND you would be keeping the money in Pahrump.
As for the other stuff, I dont think we need “Selective Traffic Enforcement Program” around here. I enjoy the fact that the cops out here are not traffic nazis, and wont pull you over for 1 mph over the limit, nor will waste time on things like seatbelt checkpoints. As for the other enforcement, I would think that would be done 24/7 (Like getting drunks and druggies off the road) and would not need grant money to accomplish.
The 771k was last years budget when all the employees took the service credit buyouts.
I hope the commissioners approve it.
Remember this well Joe Thomas.
THAT WHICH CANNOT BE PAID WILL NOT BE PAID.
As a taxpayer I want no defined pension plans for any county or town employee.
401k’s is what we should be giving employees.
Rise up
and rise up again
until lambs become lions
you know what william…
you sound a lot like a person who wants everything but is opposed to paying for anything.
you and people like you cry when the crime rate is up yet complain when asked to chip in to pay for officers to bring it down.
sure spend more when property values are down hence taxes and houses are still being foreclosed. Really smart to spend what one does not have nor generate in revenue. Thats the politicians way of life.