Tunnell briefs Ashland commissioners on appropriations for Prosecutor's Office

Barry Fortune
·2 min read

Ashland County Prosecutor Chris Tunnell briefed the Ashland County commissioners on the 2024 appropriations for his office on Tuesday.

“I am here for what has become our annual Prosecutor’s Office operations,” he began. “Everything is up. The numbers are up” on the various cases his department has handled so far this year.

He said adult felonies, as of Nov. 20, sit at 541 cases with 321 charged cases.

“To put that in perspective, last year for the entire year, we filed 268 cases,” he said. “We have definitely seen an increase in filed cases.”

He added he felt it was not an increase from felony crime on the streets and that juvenile stats are up as well.

“We had 268 intakes as of Nov. 7 with 142 complaints filed,” he said about juvenile statistics and said the 142 complaints was, “a lot. It is a pretty significant increase.”

When asked in what area more funding would help with efficiency, Tunnell was quick with his answer.

“More people,” said. “It is always another secretary or attorney. I would take another attorney, a staff member or a full-time assistant victim’s coordinator. We could do a lot more with that.”

Other actions

  • Approved reappointments to the Community Corrections Planning Board, effective Jan. 1 for Rick Ford, Shannon Maag, Jason Varney, Michael Sullivan, Jack Colvin, Fred Oxley, Jon Walk, Kelly Van Driest, Celia Cureton and Casey Benavides with various 2 and 3- year terms.

  • Approved County Engineer Ed Meixner and two staff members for travel to a conference.

  • Authorized an amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding for 211 disaster assistance services between the Ashland County Emergency Management Agency and the Mansfield/Richland County Public Library to change the contract end date to Dec. 31, 2024.

  • Made transfers to Dale-Roy School and Sheriff and appropriations to Mobile Home Tax, Jail Operations, Dog & Kennel, Juvenile Court and Community Corrections.

The Ashland County Office Building at the intersection of West Main and Cottage Streets is seen here Tuesday, April 6, 2021. TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM
The Ashland County Office Building at the intersection of West Main and Cottage Streets is seen here Tuesday, April 6, 2021. TOM E. PUSKAR/TIMES-GAZETTE.COM

Commissioners will meet 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 30 in the Commissioner’s Conference Room on the second floor of the County Office Building. The meetings are open to the public, but also live-streamed on the Ashland County Government Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Tunnell briefs Ashland County Commissioners on appropriations