By JIMMY LAWTON

St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells says he will continue to push county legislators to fill a vacant deputy position despite the county’s $4 million budget gap.

The county board recentlu voted against filling the vacant position and later enacted a 60-day delay on filling all vacancies.

“We still want to see the position filled. If we don’t fill it, we work short staffed and that leads to more overtime,” he said.

Last year Wells’ department spent more than $500,000 in overtime. Wells said this year he expects overall overtime spending will be less.

He says his department is already functioning at minimum levels and struggles to achieve its goals due to a lack of staffing. “With our workload, we could easily justify hiring five to eight more deputies,” he said.

Wells has served in the sheriff’s department for 31 years and has held the chief position for eight. During his tenure, he says he has seen the road patrol targeted for cuts numerous times. But the reality is, residents of St. Lawrence County and its elected officials support his department, he maintains.

“The people of this county and these boards historically have supported law enforcement,” he said. “They are looking to make cuts and I understand that. There are certain things that need to be cut, but no one wants to cut public safety,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense to cut public safety.”

Wells says his office is the lead agency in the county’s drug task force, which has made several major busts in recent years. He acknowledges that many people say state police or local departments would pick up the slack if the county were to eliminate the highway patrol, but he says those agencies lack the necessary staff to do so.

“If the road patrol was dissolved, no other agency is going to be able to pick up the slack,” he said. “The staff just isn’t there.”

Wells said he appreciates the legislators’ position. Like the county, he says he has worked hard to maximize efficiencies within his own budget.

Wells says the sheriff’s department has made substantial cuts in services in recent years. He said deputies no longer have the presence in local schools they once had.

“We used to reach out to schools, but now they have to reach out to us,” he said

He said patrol cars are now driven up to 180,000 to 200,000 miles. “The days of replacing vehicles on a rotating schedule are gone,” he said. “We have to make them last.”

Wells said deputies also ride solo during midnight shifts, something that would not have been common practice in the past.

At the jail, which also falls under his department, cost savings can be more difficult to achieve. Wells says St. Lawrence County Correctional Facility in Canton already operates at the state minimum required staffing levels.

At the same time, Wells says there are many state mandates that have to be met. The mandates include separation of inmates by age and gender and a variety of mental and physical health care issues.

“We get people in here in all sorts of conditions and we don’t have any control over that,” he said. “Once they are here it’s our job to make sure they are cared for.”

Despite the obstacles, Wells said he has worked hard to keep costs at the jail down.

Wells says the jail does employ some health care professionals and is capable of helping inmates detox in many cases, which has been a massive savings.

His department has also worked hard to reduce food costs associated with feeding inmates.

“We are able to feed an inmate for $1.42 per day,” he said.

Wells said at times, the jail can bring in revenues from housing inmates from outside of the county. But it’s not a practice his department can actively chase down, he said.

Wells says for that to occur another a judge has to sentence someone, another jail has to decide it can’t house the person and then they’d have to choose to send that person to St. Lawrence County’s facility.

“It’s not like we can just bring them in,” he says.

Wells said that aside from leading the drug task force, his department is tasked with serving the vast majority of the county’s protection orders, investigates a large number of pistol permits applications and performs prisoner transports.

“We handle a lot more duties than I think many people realize,” he said.