Commission approves sheriff's office funding requests

The Hill County Commission granted a pair of funding requests to the Hill County Sheriff’s Office, both of which initially drew questions from some county officials.

The first of these requests was for $13,850 for the department to buy 10 new computers, which Hill County Sheriff Jamie Ross, who was at Thursday’s meeting, said that is fewer than half of their inventory.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said based on what the commission has been shown these 10 computers would replace ones that are no longer fit for purpose and that some other departments may have a need for new computers as well.

Hill County Clerk and Recorder Sue Armstrong didn’t object to the request itself but asked the commission if they had contacted DIS Technologies, which provides the county’s information technology services, to talk to them about the schedule of computer replacement they have.

She said she was at the meeting where the sheriff’s office initially made this request and she asked the commission to check with DIS on that point.

Hill County Treasurer Sandy Brown said the county needs to be replacing computers across the departments on a rolling basis and DIS would have that schedule.

McLean said it is the responsibility of individual departments to all contact DIS and bring that information to the commission but Armstrong said none of the departments were told that and the commission can just call DIS and get it directly.

These requests were initially ignored and the commission approved the request, but Armstrong said she still wanted them to follow up with DIS.

Hill County Clerk and Recorder-Elect Lexis Dixon then said some of the computers in their department will be out of warranty in January and Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said he would call DIS and address that.

Another funding request from the department the commission discussed was $11,940 for equipment for a pair of new deputies.

The commission motioned to take the funds for the request from the county’s oil and gas funds, but Armstrong and Brown said the sheriff’s office already has a budget item for that kind of thing.

McLean said they were not aware of that item and because of that they are going to take it from the oil and gas fund.

After some argument and examining the budgets in question Ross said the budget line they are talking about is specifically for purchasing radios and the objections ceased and the motion was passed.

The commission also approved the county’s weed management plan for the coming year during the meeting.