Fayette

County's public safety force will be beefed up

with six new employees at the Sheriff's

Department and five more in emergency medical

services for the coming budget year, which begins

July 1.

Sheriff

Randall Johnson approached the Fayette County

Commission Monday morning to request nine

additional deputies.

He

got the six deputies for certain, with the chance

of getting two more to beef up the drug

suppression task force. Peachtree City and

Fayetteville's police departments no longer

participate in the unit, and additional manpower

is needed to perform large raids, Johnson said.

Before

approving those two new positions, however, the

commission wanted to check with the cities to see

if they would join the unit again.

"We

make most of our busts in the cities,"

Johnson pointed out, adding that the city of

Tyrone recently rejoined the task force.

Commissioner

Herb Frady originally recommended funding the six

positions instead of all nine. He said the

commission should make sure that departments grow

at the same pace as the county, which is

currently on a trend of decreasing population.

The

sheriff said he thought that was a "pretty

big cut," adding that people in Fayette

County expect a higher quality of law

enforcement.

Johnson

told the board that response times were getting

longer due to a larger volume of calls.

"We're

about 1,200 calls ahead of last year,"

Johnson said. "Our response time is going up

considerably."

One

of the new positions approved by the commission

was for a juvenile investigator in addition to

three patrol deputies and another deputy on the

traffic squad. Since the request was trimmed, the

commission agreed to allow the sheriff to decide

which of the positions to fill.

Commissioners

also discussed the use of funds seized in drug

raids. County manager Billy Beckett said there

was $25,000 in the fund that could be used to

offset that amount of money in the sheriff's

budget.

Commissioner

Linda Wells said she was concerned about a lack

of accountability about how the drug funds are

spent.

The

commission approved the entire Sheriff's

Department budget of $9.59 million unanimously

after settling the personnel issue.

The

commission also approved a proposal to hire five

more firefighters and emergency medical

technicians. Jack Krakeel, director of fire and

emergency services, told the commission that the

extra help was needed to respond to emergencies.

At

least 12 to 14 people are needed to work a

structure fire, he said, in addition to between

10 and 12 for vehicle extrications.

The

new employees will also help reduce the need for

overtime since they can fill in for others who

are sick or taking leave they have accrued,

Krakeel said.

The

increase in salary for the new positions is

expected to be offset by an increase in the

ambulance fee the county charges, which is

estimated to add $354,000 to the department's

revenues next year.

Krakeel

also proposed a change in the way firefighters

are funded since it currently causes residents of

incorporated areas of the county to pay less in

fire taxes than those living in unincorporated

areas of the county. The difference is almost

half a mill, he said.

That's

because 15 firefighters are currently funded

under the Emergency Medical Services budget, he

said. Krakeel suggested that over the next three

years, five of those positions be transferred to

the fire department's budget.

The

commission approved that proposal along with the

rest of the fire budget, which totalled $5.39

million and the EMS budget, totalling $1.56

million.

The

budgets for the marshal's department ($677,000)

and the Emergency-911 service ($1.66 million)

were also approved by the commission.

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