County cuts to affect eight
<p dir="ltr"><span>The fallout from the failed Public Safety Tax referendum has begun.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The Randolph County Board of Commissioners officially approved a severance package for Randolph County Sheriff's Deputy Janice Barbour on Thursday, three weeks after the PST was overwhelmingly defeated by county voters in the Nov. 8 general election.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Barbour accepted an early retirement offer after 30 years in law enforcement and will receive a stipend of $7,500 per year to help cover health insurance costs until age 65.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"She's been around a long time," said Randolph County Sheriff Shannon Wolff. "Janice is a great person.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"She's not only a fellow law enforcement officer, but a great friend and I hate to see her go."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>With the loss of Barbour - who will not be replaced - Wolff said he is now down to eight deputies (from a high of 12 several years ago) to help cover the county's nearly 600 square miles and 33,000 residents.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"We'll do our best with what we have," Wolff said, noting that he wanted the public to know his agency will provide the best service it can. "It's all we can do. The deputies actually gave up some benefits to help with the budget crisis and I took a pay freeze myself.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"My pay was set at the beginning of my term for four years and I went ahead and took a freeze on it."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Randolph County Commissioner Dave Holder told the Herald Tribune after the meeting that all of the county's officeholders had taken a pay freeze and in preparing the fiscal year 2017 budget, he had asked them what their core services were that they must provide.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"That's the question I'm asking everybody around here," Holder said. "What must we do?"</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Commissioner Marc Kiehna stated that eight people could be affected by the cuts, which are projected to give the county a positive balance of $7,576 in the fiscal year 2017 budget.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The county's CPA - Jim Schmersahl - noted that achieving a balanced budget required layoffs of four full-time personnel, two part-time, some early retirements and one transition from full-time to part-time employment.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Kiehna noted that if more people chose early retirement, it may allow the county to keep some of the employees who received pink slips.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"There will be some fee increases that will have to be taken care of in the next couple of months," Holder said.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The commissioners have been meeting with the various unions that represent the employees and a meeting was held Monday with the Operating Engineers Union.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>In the weeks and months leading up to the election, the commissioners - as well as several other county officeholders - had sounded several warnings about potential layoffs if the PST failed to pass.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>During a presentation to the Chester Chamber of Commerce in September, Randolph County State's Attorney Jeremy Walker stated that between 16 and 20 county employees could be laid off to make up the county's $1 million budget deficit.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"Every facet of what we know, like and love about this county will change," Walker said at the time.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The PST was defeated by more than 5,200 votes as 67 percent of the 14,431 registered voters who participated in the Nov. 8 election voted "No."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The commissioners have also left the door open to the possibility the PST could be put back on the ballot for the April 4 consolidated election.</span>