Lawrence County Council approve transfers and additional appropriations in recent meeting

During Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Lawrence County Council, various budget transfers and additional appropriations were approved for county offices, including the highway department, prosecutor's office and the public defender agency.

Valerie Luchauer, Emergency Management Director for Lawrence County, requested to transfer $5,000, given to her office in the form of a grant from Duke Energy to a different fund of her department’s so it can be used to purchase generators.

Luchauer said the generators will be stored with local volunteer fire departments and used for private citizens in the case of an emergency where power is lost. Her request was approved by the council.

The Council approved a request from Brandi Webb, Director of the Lawrence County Highway Department, of $35,218 and $31,279 to cover the local match for grants received to replace street signs in districts two and three of the county.

Nedra Block-Fleetwood and Joe Dibert both made requests on behalf of the Lawrence County Probation office.

Fleetwood requested to create a new budget line to account for user fees generated by the Lawrence County Veterans Court. Currently, participants in the court pay a $35 per month fee to the department, which has generated $700 so far.

Dibert requested to use a $4,800 donation made by Hoosier Uplands to the Lawrence County Coalition Against Domestic Violence to purchase billboard advertising space in high traffic areas in Lawrence County. Both requests were approved by the council.

Lawrence County Prosecutor Samuel Arp II submitted a request for a transfer of $18,900 to fund his office’s match for the Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors (STOP) Formula grant, which was approved.

Lawrence County Chief Public Defender Tim Sledd requested an additional appropriation of $20,000 to cover invoices submitted to the department by contracted attorneys previously used by the department.

Upon taking control of the agency in June, Sledd began an effort to halt spending on contract attorneys, including requiring monthly invoices from contractors, working with judges to review the amounts requested on invoices and restructuring the employees within the department to be able to cover as many cases in-house as possible without requiring the use of outside counsel.

According to Sledd, there were 70 cases being handled by contract attorneys, but he has been able to reduce that number to 32, with the others either being given to employees of the office or concluding.

Additionally, Sledd said he has not had to solicit the services of a contracted attorney during his time leading the office.

Sledd’s request for an additional $20,000 was approved by the council.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Lawrence County Council approve transfer and appropriation requests