The Belknap County sheriff told commissioners during a budget review that the sheriff's office needs roughly $35,000 added to the full-time dispatcher line to cover holiday pay and other pay increases, a deficiency the office says was revealed late in last year’s accounting.

The funding request centers on line 51122, which the sheriff said is short because holiday pay for dispatchers was not included in last year’s budget. "Holiday pay that's associated with them working their shifts was not added to last year's budget, which put me automatically in a $30,000 deficit," the sheriff said, and asked that the additional funds be added so dispatchers can be funded at current rates.

Why it matters: dispatchers are staffed to maintain two-person coverage nearly 24/7, and the sheriff’s office said call-in minimum payments make cutting staff on holidays ineffective as a cost-saving measure. The request also absorbs anticipated pay increases tied to the sheriff's broader personnel budget.

The sheriff also described several other budget drivers that moved into his office after a recent network separation and regional consolidation of records systems. "We own the servers here at the sheriff's office," he said, explaining that licensing and support costs previously billed elsewhere are now built into the sheriff's budget because his office hosts IMC licensing for regional partners. That consolidation, he said, saved smaller towns money while increasing the host department's licensing burden.

The sheriff described a recurring $30,000 maintenance allocation for the county's regional Special Operations (SWAT) team, which covers Belknap County and pays for ammunition, some ballistic gear and vehicle maintenance. He said the team follows National Tactical Officers Association guidelines and that some chemical munitions used for operations have shelf lives and are rotated into training when replaced.

Other items flagged in the sheriff's presentation included a $3,200 increase to safety and ammunition supplies to replace worn or outdated ballistic vests after an anticipated grant did not materialize, and a two-cruiser lease proposal on a three-year replacement cycle that the sheriff said will keep the fleet current and fully upfitted with radios, mobile data terminals and other equipment.

The sheriff also described a one-time advertising spike that inflated the county's advertising line: a sheriff sale involving an out-of-state (Massachusetts) property required statewide publication, costing well over $2,000 for that single action and prompting a recommendation to increase the advertising budget to avoid statutory underfunding in the future.

No completed vote or formal appropriation on these items was recorded in the transcript excerpt. The sheriff framed several of the increases as statutory or contractual obligations and said the commissioners had already accepted certain grant pieces that offset program fees in other parts of the budget. The commissioners asked questions and expressed understanding; several indicated they viewed the dispatcher increase as an "actual expense."