Lyon County Commissioners continued their budget planning for the 2022 fiscal year Thursday.
During their regular action session Thursday, commissioners received two allocation requests, the first coming from Lyon County Sheriff Jeff Cope. Cope’s request came in at $5.7 million, a roughly five percent increase from fiscal year 2019, with the majority of that increase set to go towards staff recruitment and retention.
According to Cope, the Sheriff’s Office is still working to fill 13 vacancies at the Lyon County Detention Center and three deputy positions. Cope says retention and staffing is not an issue unique to Lyon Couty, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, however, he feels the pandemic may not be the main cause.
He feels the current state of relations between the general public and law enforcement may be deterring individuals from entering the law enforcement field. Cope says it is a situation he’s seen more than once in his career.
The second request Thursday morning came from the Lyon County Fair Board for a total of $60,000, flat from 2019. Fair Board member Ken Duft says they did not want to increase their request given the impacts of coronavirus over the past year as many organizations are still “hurting.”
With that said, however, Duft tells KVOE News expenses did not stop over the past year for the Fair Board with a number of improvement projects taking place in 2020. This includes new roofing on facilities and the new LED sign at the Fairground’s entrance.
Duft says all money allocated to the Fair Board has historically gone straight back into the community.
Both requests have been taken under consideration by commissioners.
In other business, commissioners approved a series of purchases for structural steel piling, steel beams and grader blades from Lyon County Engineer Chip Woods.
The Lyon County Commission will reconvene for their weekly action session next Thursday at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse.