COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Sheriff John Pollack is expected to request an additional road patrol deputy during Thursday’s Branch County Board of Commissioners work session.
Commissioners went back and forth last November and December as they finalized the county’s 2019 budget on whether or not to grant a request from the Sheriff’s Office for an additional road patrol deputy and four new vehicles.
But with an important bond sale scheduled for early 2019 to help finance the new Branch County Jail, Commissioners decided not to tap into the fund balance to pay for the deputy and four additional vehicles in order maintain the county’s bond rating of double A minus.
The discussion during a December 2018 work session indicated Commissioners wanted to add a deputy once the bonds were secured for the jail project.
Pollack says in his letter to Commissioners for Thursday’s work session that in checking with local banks the bond rates have not only remained stable, but in some cases dropped.
The Sheriff is asking that his request be added to the agenda for the first work session in June.
