Grant County held a preliminary FY2026 budget hearing April 24 in which elected officials and department heads summarized spending requests and priorities for the coming year.

Detention center: Joseph Anasola, representing the detention facility, presented the facility's budget ask and said the detention center is requesting $2,168,936 for salaries (an increase the transcript lists as a $812,311 change). "Currently, we're starting officers at $16 an hour," Anasola said in the meeting. "With this increase, we're gonna start them at $17.53." Anasola also requested capital and maintenance funds including roughly $85,000 to replace an end-of-life PLC control system that operates doors and locks and about $14,845 for an AI upgrade to the facility's body scanner to detect contraband automatically. He noted the facility has used the scanner to find contraband and to reduce overdoses but said the newer software would reduce human error by flagging anomalies for staff.

Sheriff's requests: The sheriff requested one office assistant position for the civil process division to free sworn deputies from administrative work and asked the commission for $20,000 to continue the DARE program after a private donor left. The sheriff also described reliance on recruitment-and-retention grants and said those grants are time-limited.

IT and systems: IT Director Mister Baca asked for funding to migrate county email and productivity to Microsoft Office 365 (a maintenance-contracts line item request of roughly $130,000) and $45,000 to migrate critical Eagle services (used by clerk/treasurer/assessor) to a cloud vendor to reduce on-site server maintenance. He also sought funding to upgrade backup infrastructure and to sustain maintenance on servers and network devices.

Roads, fleet and maintenance: Road Director Jason Lockett outlined large equipment and materials requests including increases to daily work and capital outlay for vehicles, a mini excavator, a bottom-dump trailer and transport trailer replacement. Fleet maintenance asked for two mechanic/service vehicles (totaling roughly $283,000) and a lube-service truck replacement. Maintenance requested a skid steer and other grounds equipment for parks and facilities.

Transit and airport: Cori Camino transit staff provided preliminary federal fiscal-year figures and asked the county for an $80,000 portion of the cash match for their grant application; the airport manager requested a $65,000 emergency generator and $76,000 for an equipment storage building.

Manager's overview and next steps: County Manager Sharlene Webb told commissioners the overall county budget is being presented as a flat budget at this point and emphasized the need for commissioners to prioritize requests. She said ClearGov entries and more detailed comparative actuals would be available shortly to aid decision-making. Commissioners asked for follow-up information on items that reduce county liability and improve public safety and signaled interest in detention staffing and road maintenance.

Why it matters: The preliminary requests contain multiple items that affect public safety, service continuity and capital planning. Several commissioners emphasized public-safety priorities (detention staffing, law enforcement recruitment/retention, fire and emergency communications) and roads, which they said serve broad populations.

Next steps: Staff will produce comparative reports and revised prelim materials; commissioners said they expect to see prioritized recommendations and suggested some initial cuts before the next budget review session.