In the first of a series of hearings in preparation for the 2000 budget, Carroll County commissioners heard a slew of funding requests yesterday, from a pitch for another kennel worker at the Humane Society to a plea not to kill support for the Civil Air Patrol.
The county's Office of Management and Budget proposed giving the patrol $2,500 -- a 50 percent cut. 2000 is the last year in a previously agreed-to plan to phase out its support. The patrol, the only Civil Air Patrol in the state supported by county funds, is scheduled to get nothing the next year.
Lt. Christian Ready, flanked by three cadets, asked commissioners to reconsider.
"Our mission is education, emergency services and cadet programs," he said. "We do air search and rescue, ground search and rescue, and we teach people how to survive in the woods seeking downed aircraft or missing persons."
Besides learning about aviation, Ready said, the 36 cadets in the Carroll squadron learn leadership skills and how to stay away from drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. The patrol will spend about $7,900 this year, with the county contributing $5,000. The balance is made up by patrol members and the Air Force.
"I'd like to see [funding] stay," board President Julia Walsh Gouge said after the meeting. "Personally, I think they do a lot of good for $5,000 -- they do a lot with a little."
Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Robin Bartlett Frazier also expressed support for the program, but noted the patrol's needs would be weighed against other funding requests to the board.
In other requests:
Nicky Ratliff, executive director of the Humane Society of Carroll County, sought an additional kennel worker to help feed animals, clean cages and do janitorial work. The county's budget office has proposed funding for animal control in the amount of $453,000 -- an increase of 4.5 percent. The new worker, whose salary was not included in the proposed budget, would earn nearly $16,000.
Romeo Valiante, chairman of the Board of License Commissioners, spoke in support of the board's proposed 2.62 percent funding increase that would, among other things, give a 25-cent-per-hour raise to two part-time liquor inspectors. The proposed increase would bring the board's budget to $65,000.
The Soil Conservation agency sought -- in addition to its 6 percent proposed increase of $11,000 -- an additional $18,000 to $24,000 for a four-wheel-drive truck.
Howard S. Redman, administrator of the Office of Public Safety, requested an extra $27,000 to pay for an additional employee to operate the office's new radio equipment. The office's recommended budget dropped 5.7 percent -- or $105,000 -- in fiscal 1999 because of one-time charges to pay for the radio equipment and furniture. The proposed budget of $1.7 million included $2,500 to provide weather-alert radios to public schools and county buildings that would provide early severe-weather warnings.
The county's budget office has recommended a 1.6 percent increase -- or $900 -- in the Board of Zoning Appeals' budget, which would bring it to $57,000. Zoning board Chairman Karl Reichlin did not seek additional increases.
The commissioners took no formal action on the funding requests yesterday. They will listen to several additional presentations, said Budget Director Steven D. Powell, then receive a final budget recommendation late this month or early next month before voting on funding.
Pub Date: 3/16/99