Funds available for two cars
Council approves purchase for sheriff's dept.
Mary Margaret Moorhead - Staff Writer

One of few items that were neither tabled nor eliminated from Tuesday's Ripley County Council agenda was the purchase of two 2005 standard police cars for the Sheriff's Department.

Although much discussion ensued as to the source of the funding, a motion by Council Member Juanita Bauer that the $47,000 purchase come from riverboat funds received a second from Council Member Ed Armbrecht and a 7-0 vote.

In his presentation Sheriff Bill Davison explained that several of the cars have well over 150,000 miles. He said he is trying to replace two cars each year, a plan that Armbrecht endorsed.

The sheriff noted that as of September 30 his department has been able to put $346,343 in the County General Fund; yet riverboat funding had been taken out of his budget.

Suggestions as to where the payment for the new cars should come included the Sheriff's Improvement Fund, which is supposed to go for improvements to the jail, or the 2005 budget, which has not yet received state approval.

Finally, Council Member Armbrecht said, "We're skirting the issues. The fact is we're trying to find money so that we don't have to take money out of the Riverboat Fund. Otherwise the paramedic will not have funding."

He continued, "The time has come to make the decision to replace the cars. If there's available appropriation in the Riverboat Fund, then I agree it should come from there."

Earlier in the meeting Council President Donald Dunbar tabled a request for an additional appropriation for Parks & Recreation and assigned it to "Transfers" for the November meeting.

Then Commissioners John Little, Robert Reiners, and Chuck Folz removed their request for $175,000 from Rising Sun Riverboat to be used for insurance and two transfers of $66,827.40 and $9,465.00 for group insurance from the action items on the agenda.

Their alternative to take the amount from the County Highway Fund met with Armbrecht's statement: "If this comes out of highway, we are going to have to document
that...We can't use highway money for anything but highway."

The lengthy discussion and search for funds led to a public comment by Joe Menchhofer, "Does anybody in the county know where the money is?"

Questions usually answered by Auditor Mary Ann McCoy concerning several of the funds were put on hold because she was attending an out-of-town meeting pertaining to her job.