Sheriff wants 5 deputy positions restored

Officials also need to replace 23 bullet proof vests

NEW BOSTON, Texas — The Bowie County Sheriff’s Office has submitted a $4 million budget for the next fiscal year that would restore five deputy positions that had been cut.

Bowie County Sheriff Jeff Neal made this request at a recent county office budget hearings. He also asked that a clerical position be restored.

The position cuts, which took place as part of an overall county wide mandatory 15% budget reduction in July of 2014, haven’t been restore since.

“Most of the offices have had their or people restored, but the Sheriff’s Office hasn’t had any of its positions returned to date,” Neal told court members. “If this cannot be fully funded, I ask that we work to replace the positions as the county’s budget allows.”

Neal calculated that full restoration for the six positions, would amount to slightly more then $348,400.

Besides the personnel restoration request, Neal said his office continues to replace five patrol cars on an annual basis. This year, he said, a deal with the Texarkana Texas Police Department could help keep related costs in check.

“We are working with the Texasside to buy three used vehicles from them to defray the overall cost of this project,” he said. “We will still need to buy two vehicles as well as factor in the cost of uninstalling and reinstalling the equipment that can still be used.”

Neal went on to estimate the entire cost of these transactions would be about $225,000 provided for in his Capital Outlay fund request.

“I m also asking for an increase of $10,000 for repairing vehicles,” he said. “This year’s current budget has been fully used as our fleet is aging.”

As for inmate transport vans, Neal said he was only able to get one of the two replacement vans he requested last year, owing to fund shortages. However, he said that he will need the second van replacement this year, which he estimated will cost $40,000 — also provided in Capital Outlay funds.

Aside from vehicles, Neal said he needs to update some of the deputies’ bullet proof vests as they go out of date.

“We have a total of 23 vests that will need to be replaced this year, with an estimated cost of $26,500,” he said. “I have a deputy working on applying for some grant funding, to help supplement this project. If this grant gets approved it would require us to pay for all the vests up front and then receive a 40% reimbursement.”

Currently commissioners are reviewing Neal’s request, as well as the funding requests for the rest of the county offices. Court members should be reaching their budgetary decisions on each request, by the end of this month.