SABINA — If a municipal earnings tax increase on the May ballot gets turned down, the village likely will need to cut the police roster down to two or possibly three officers, the mayor said Thursday.
Mayor Dean Hawk’s report to village council was devoted entirely to the upcoming five-year tax issue that, if approved, would be used toward maintaining police services in Sabina.
If the tax issue is defeated, Hawk projected that Sabina police would be utilized for 10 to 15 eight-hour shifts, “leaving as many as 88 hours per week that the village would be covered only by a roving deputy sheriff,” said the mayor.
Unlike SPD officers, a county deputy would not be stationed in town, Hawk added.
The total expense in Sabina for police officers’ salaries, pensions and workers compensation in 2016 was $203,209. Non-salary items such as fuel, cruiser repairs, uniforms, liability and property insurance, and supplies in 2016 cost $87,078, the mayor said.
So the total expenditure for the Sabina Police Department in 2016 was $290,287. That’s a reduction of $44,200 or 13.2 percent from the year before, stated Hawk.
The mayor said some residents have asked “why are we suddenly unable to pay for the police department?” On Thursday, Hawk said that during former Mayor Dean Carnahan’s administration, when factories and many more businesses were in operation, Carnahan was able to build up “a comfortable balance in the General Fund from which the police costs are paid.”
But during an eight-year time span, the village saw a net loss of about 300 workers who were at employers located in town and thus had been paying the existing 1 percent village earnings tax. Hawk also cites the reduction in Local Government Funds by the State of Ohio.
All told, the General Fund would shrink “at an alarming rate,” he said.
Sabina Fiscal Officer Nancy L. Cornell said that if it weren’t for a $200,000 transfer of money from the town’s Sewer Sanitation Reserve Emergency Fund to the General Fund — a move authorized by the Clinton County Common Pleas Court in late January 2017 — the police force already would be smaller.
Sabina Law Director Melissa Upthegrove announced Thursday that the police will start citing people who overdose on heroin. They will be charged with inducing panic.
“This is not a fix-all. We’re just trying to get these people some help and hopefully we can keep them long enough to get that help,” Upthegrove said.
The purpose of the new approach, she said, is to try to channel the person who overdoses “into some type of treatment program, and maybe save someone’s life.”
Councilman Bill Lewis, who is heading up an effort to see whether parts of Sabina designated as a flood zone can be re-classified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), hopes residents will consider loaning him photographs of past Sabina flooding to strengthen the case to be made to the agency.
Getting Sabina out of the flood zone would help relieve residents who have required flood insurance on their mortgages.
Council approved making village employee Nate Hamilton full-time, and raised his pay rate from $12 to $13 an hour.
Councilman Jim Mongold announced that Family Fun Day has been expanded this year to three dates, Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6. The current schedule calls for a free pool party on Friday, Aug. 4; entertainment, vendors and games for children on Saturday, Aug. 5; and an annual car show in the village park on Sunday, Aug. 6.
For more information or to volunteer to assist at the event, please see Stephanie Hamilton of Traditions Restaurant in downtown Sabina, said Mongold.
Mongold said he will donate his next council paycheck to the Sabina Area Business Association which is involved in organizing the Family Fun Days community event.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768.
