It's truly not the Christmas

season in Coweta County unless Sheriff Mike Yeager is asking the County

Commission for an early Christmas present.

During Tuesday morning's

public hearing on the budget, the sheriff came, hat in hand, with his

personnel requests for this year.

In earlier budget negotiations,

the sheriff had asked for six new deputies, but the county's staff

said this year's tight budget would not support that many new employees.

The county is looking at a

$36.3 million general fund budget, with the sheriff's department

getting $10.1 million of the funds.

Yeager said he understood the

hard economic times, but wondered if the county couldn't crunch the

numbers a little tighter and find room for two people.

The sheriff said he had a part-time

clerical position that he would like to see made full-time, and also he

wanted to add an evidence custodian.

"They're doing things

totally different at the state crime lab now. We're responsible for

delivering and picking up our evidence, and our caseload has increased,"

he said.

In 1999, the department responded

to just over 33,000 calls, but this year the total is likely to top 42,000,

he said.

"We're also trying

to get our national accreditation and this would help," he said.

The commissioners said they

would consider Yeager's request, and asked county administrator Theron

Gay to see if funding could be found.

The county will vote on its

final 2004 budget Jan. 6.