Get Active Subscribe Support Us

SHERIFF VOWS TO FIGHT CUTS

YADKINVILLE -- Sheriff Mike Cain is digging in his cowboy boots and hunkering down for a fight.

"I found out about I was losing these deputies at the neighborhood hardware store," Cain said Tuesday afternoon, shaking his head in disgust.  "When I left the meeting Saturday morning, I thought everything was fine.  No one said anything about cutting jobs .  .  .  That really made my red hair red."

Yadkin commissioners say they will not pay for four school resource officers at the county's elementary schools, which were funded with federal dollars.  The four-year-old federal grant has expired.

Commissioners say they can't afford to pick up the approximate tab of $100,000 for the four officers.  They also asked Cain to cut another $28,000 "clerical" position from his budget.

"The grant money has simply run out," County Manager Cecil Wood said Tuesday afternoon.

The COPS in Schools grant program funds law enforcement officers who work to build relationships with schools, using community policing to combat school violence.

Commissioner Josh Baity of Yadkinville said that school officials could save the four resource officers.  But that would mean a tradeoff with four locally funded teaching positions.

"You have a choice," Baity said.

Cain said that he intends to fight for the four law officers.  He prepared a letter to send home to parents with school children.  But he was told that would be dabbling in politics.

"( School ) administration said no," Cain said.  "How is it politics now and it wasn't four years ago?"

Cain said he was also upset that commissioners didn't tell him Saturday they intended to eliminate four of his staff.

"I thought the budget was fine .  .  .  There was nothing said about cutting them during the meeting," Cain said.  "My budget was already bare-boned.  I've never busted a budget.  I can't cut another $28,000 from the budget."

Eliminating the four school resource officers will reduce response time to the schools, Cain said, and also scrap the D.A.R.E ( Drug Awareness Resistance Education ) and C.A.R.E ( Child Abuse Reduction Effort ) programs that resource officers teach to elementary students.

"We reach a lot of kids," Cain said.  "Some of these kids never hear this stuff at home."

Cain said that he has informed the four resource officers they are scheduled to lose their jobs July 1.  But that doesn't mean that he's prepared to give up the fight.  He's already telephoned commissioners to express his displeasure.

"I told a couple of them they might want to lay their phone off the hook and put up a gate," Cain said.

And Cain didn't rule out organizing a grassroots effort to change commissioners' minds.  Cain, who was re-elected in November by a landslide margin to a second term, said the final decision may come from angry constituents.

"I don't intend to skimp on services.  And I'm not going to let the people down," Cain said, propping his cowboy boots on his desk.  "You gotta be a big boy to play this game.  I'm just as big a political man as they are."