By By Chris Whitaker / staff writer
June 4, 2002
Lauderdale County supervisors voted Monday to seek a $66,120 federal grant to help fund the salary of one additional sheriff's deputy to help enforce drunken driving laws.
Supervisors agreed to pay $43,378 to match the grant. Sheriff Billy Sollie said that the total of $109,498 would pay for the new and current DUI officers' salaries, benefits and overtime.
David Rosenbaum, the only deputy assigned to enforce laws against driving under the influence, said he likes the grant. Rosenbaum wrote the second-most DUI citations in the state last year 305.
In 2001, Lauderdale County had more than 350 in-state DUI offenders up from 242 the year before. Rosenbaum said those statistics show that the DUI is a problem in Lauderdale County.
Rosenbaum, a DUI officer since September 2000, said he covers his shift at night and spends a lot of time in the courtroom during the day. He also travels teaching new officers how to detect DUIs.
Sollie said the grant would help pay the salary of Rosenbaum and a new officer, buy two digital cameras and buy two car video systems. He said the county's share would pay a salary for the DUI caseworker and buy a new car for service.
Now that county supervisors have acted, Sollie said, he must wait for the federal agency to move. The application will go to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and then to Atlanta for review.
If the grant is funded, Sollie said, it will be available for Lauderdale County by November.
IN OTHER MATTERS
In their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors also:
Authorized entering a "consulting agreement" with the Whitten Group for
workplace harassment training and development needs at a cost of $14-$16 a person;
Authorized the county's election commissioners to attend a Congressional District Workshop to be held July 9 in Starkville;
Authorized Youth Court Judge Frank Coleman to attend the Annual Trial Judges Meeting to be held July 10-14 in Sandestin, Fla.; and
Approved a request for two officers to attend DARE training July 29-Aug. 9 at the Alabama DARE Training Center in Montgomery, Ala.