Cash-strapped Oregon counties have gotten a ‘green light’ from state lawmakers to tap into county road dollars to fund police patrols…
Commissioner Al Switzer hopes that House Bill 4175 will buy Klamath County some time…
“”it allows the funds to be taken from road reserves, to be used for patrol.”
In turn, four million in patrol dollars will then be used to keep the number of Klamath County jail beds at current levels over the next two years. While Sheriff Tim Evinger welcomed the news, he also offered a cautionary note…
“What has to be remembered is, it has to be tempered with knowing that this is very temporary, and a long-term solution has to be found – or the problem is going to be worse in two years.”
Public Safety Advisory Committee member Monte Keady notes that even a temporary solution has its perks…
“This will allow us to keep those deputies on the road, and not have to go through a re-training process and lose valuable time and money.”
And, Klamath County voters won’t be facing a jail levy on the May ballot.
Deputies are currently on patrol only ten hours a day in Klamath County. Sheriff Evinger notes that road funds will help to boost those numbers…
“We’re hopeful that there will be at least twenty hours of patrol, possibly 24 hours of patrol by the time we see what this does.”
Governor Kitzhaber has said that he does intend to sign the bill into law.
Klamath County has a road fund of about 100 million dollars… Public Works officials chose not to comment on the decision to tap into that fund.
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