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Change in grant money distribution will help sheriff's department Chief Deputy Terry Beasley presented the Washington County Commission, Monday, a request from Sheriff Richard Stringer that grant monies for overtime pay for personnel working traffic stops and other after hour duties be put into the bookkeeping system so that when the sheriff is reimbursed for this expense, the money is put back into the sheriff's budget. The grant money currently goes into the county's general fund. Both Judge Singleton and Beasley said that this change has been made in other counties. Beasley assured the commission that he had discussed the matter with the auditor who approves Washington County's accounting procedures and he (auditor) said this is a standard, approved bookkeeping measure. Commissioner Dixon objected saying that he thought the county attorney should review this and also the auditors. The item was tabled but the judge instructed the county administrator to put it on the next commission schedule as an action item. Tuesday, Sheriff Stringer said, "I don't think the practice of putting the money into the county's general fund instead of the sheriff's budget was intentional. That's just the way it's been done for many years. I commend the county commission for agreeing to consider changing this practice. Once we showed them what the problem was they agreed it was not good accounting procedures." Stringer went to on to say that with the money going back into the sheriff's budget, the department would be able to pay for additional manpower on the roads through the use of the federal grant monies. One way those funds are utilized is by conducting license checkpoints, usually during a two-day period. "The last time we conducted such an operation we made 115 arrests," added Stringer.
As a result of that operation, the sheriff's department was given two travel trailers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to be utilized as command posts. Several FBI agents were sent from the agency's Mobile field office to assist deputies with the checkpoints. They used a similar trailer for the operation.
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