Despite unfavorably viewing the proposed agreement with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office for dispatch services over the past few months, as well as voting it down last month, the Evansville Village Board again revisited the matter at their Jan. 13 meeting.
In November, the board initially discussed the topic, with most expressing that they were against it. In December, the board voted the agreement down, with only one trustee voting in favor of it.
Sheriff Shannon Wolff was on hand to discuss the matter Monday night with the board. He apologized for not being able to make it to the board’s December meeting and said that he wanted to hear their thoughts and concerns about the agreement, as well as see why they thought the proposed $450 per year was too much.
Trustee Kenny Kempfer noted that the main reason they were against the agreement was that they felt they already pay taxes for this service and did not want to be double taxed.
“I understand, and other boards had that argument,” Wolff responded. He continued by pointing out that the sheriff’s office does receive some tax funding, however that funding is intended to pay for servicing the unincorporated areas of the county, not the municipalities. But, the sheriff’s office does help the municipalities, so they would like the municipalities to take some ownership and help take part.
In addition, he pointed out that if the sheriff’s office doesn’t do dispatch for the municipalities, they would have to pay someone else for that service.
For more from the Evansville Village Board meeting, please see this week’s print edition.