24/7 coverage by the Sheriff’s Office throughout Schoharie County.
That’s the option that makes the most sense, John Leavitt, chair of supervisors’ Law Enforcement Merger Committee said Friday.
It’s something that would benefit all residents, Mr. Leavitt told supervisors.
And while consultant Laberge is just a month away from making a full report on options that could have included taking over a now much-reduced Cobleskill PD, he wanted to get it on the table now as they begin work on the 2024 budget.
“We didn’t want to wait for the final report because of the budget,” Mr. Leavitt said.
He’s asked Sheriff Ron Stevens and County Administrator Korsah Akumfi to sit down and start developing costs.
Mr. Akumfi said expanding the Sheriff’s Office coverage to 24/7 would require 6-8 additional deputies; he estimated the cost at $900,000 and said it would likely be 3-5 years before it was fully implemented.
Currently, the Sheriff’s Office runs two 10-hour shifts.
Right now–and a point that’s been made repeatedly, again, especially in light of the changes at the Cobleskill PD–the only overnight coverage in the county is from a single State Police night shift, Mr. Leavitt said.
If they get tied up in something like a fatal accident, they have to bring a patrol in from somewhere else, he said.
“This would allow coverage in Blenheim, Carlisle, Richmondville…It wouldn’t be designated. It would be for the entire county.”
There’s no plan yet; it will be up to supervisors’ Finance and Law Enforcement Committees and ultimately, the full Board of Supervisors to decide which direction they go in.
Wright Supervisor Alex Luniewski pointed out the Sheriff’s Office has had its own problems with staffing.
Yes, Sheriff Stevens said, but they’ve had some “success with the misfortunes in Cobleskill” and they have one recruit in the Academy.
“It will most definitely impact the 2024 budget if you agree to this,” Sheriff Stevens said. “We understand Cobleskill has an issue, but anything we do has to benefit all of the towns and give them additional coverage.”
In July, eight of the Village of Cobleskill Police Department’s 12 officers along with Chief Justin Manchester quit in an ongoing dispute with Mayor Becky Stanton-Terk; several who left now work for the Sheriff’s Office.
The village’s tentative 2023 budget would fund five full-time and four part-time officers, plus a secretary for Chief Jim McCrum, hired in August–but Mayor Stanton-Terk said she’s not confident they can get to that.
In addition to the Chief and a part-time secretary, the Cobleskill PD currently has three full-time and one part-time officers.
The savings from a reduced PD mean the village is looking at as much as a 50 percent cut in taxes in ’24.