Commissioners adopt Adams County 2015 budget

On Dec. 22 the Adams County Board of Commissioners Jeff Stevens, Roger Hartwig and John Marshall adopted the final 2015 budget for the county.

The commissioners said this year’s budget was relatively simple to organize and that they were able to accommodate nearly all of the department requests this year.

“It went really well this year,” Commissioner Stevens said. “Nobody asked for things that we really couldn’t do.”

With a grand total of $28.8 million budgeted in spending this year, the commissioners appropriated funds to various county services based on their actual costs from the 2014 year.

The superior court received a budget of $218,625 for 2015, $128,175 for personnel and $90,450 for operation.

The Ritzville District Court received a budget of $286,703. Of the total, $264,653 is for personnel costs. The Othello District Court total budget is $264,704 for the 2015 year.

In the Current Expense fund, the Police Operations is the largest budget item in the nearly $7 million of allotments for the county. It totals at $1.7 million dollars. Of that, $1.4 million is budgeted for personnel costs with $292,445 in operational expenses and $9,400 in capital outlay.

Additionally the Sheriff’s Department received $30,000 from the Drug Enforcement Fund to help with the training and acquisition of a K-9 unit for the county.

Outside of the Current Expense fund, County Roads has the largest budgeted spending of $8.8 million in 2015.

Of the total budget $2.6 million is for personnel costs, $4.3 million is budgeted for operational costs and $1.5 million is set aside for capital outlay.

County Roads funding is secured through state and federal sources as well as county funds.

With the adoption of the new budget the commissioners also increased the medical insurance cap to $630 a month for elected officials, non-union employees, non-union exempt employees, non-union management employees and for union employees.

Union employees for the county include Public Works, Courthouse, Corrections and Dispatch, and the Sheriff’s Association.

Washington State University requested the county to bring back a position that is funded jointly between the county and university.

“We didn’t know for sure what Adams County was gaining from that position,” Commissioner Hartwig said.

The request for funding came very last minute, according to the commissioners, and they said they wanted the opportunity to work with WSU a little more before committing funds to the position.

At the conclusion of the 2014-year the board of commissioners reorganized, with Hartwig moving into the position of Chairman of the Board.

Marshall replaced Hartwig as the Vice-Chairman of the Board.

With his re-election, Stevens is the longest serving county commissioner in Adams County history.