BUCYRUS — Voters throughout Crawford County will decide whether to pass a renewal levy for the operation of the protection an enforcement side of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office when they head to the polls Nov. 5.

The 2.75-mills levy is assessed to property owners based on the value of their property and has been renewed twice since being originally approved by voters in 2010, one year after all county budgets were cut due to the economic decline that began in 2007.

“The levy was renewed by voters once since then, in 2015,” Crawford County Sheriff Scott Kent said.

Kent said he does not want residents to be confused since a levy was passed in May to continue to fund the operations of the jail portion of the department.

“This levy is for the protection and enforcement side of the department, which includes road patrols and dispatchers,” Kent said. “This is a renewal levy only which means no new taxes.”

Kent said the levy brings in $1.5 million to the sheriff’s office every year.

“My budget for the enforcement side of the department last year was $2.2 million so the levy is imperative to keeping deputies on the road and all 10 dispatchers in place,” Kent said.

He said there are 55 people employed on the enforcement side to provide multiple services to residents throughout the county.

“Our dispatchers answer the 911 calls for all agencies in the county,” Kent said. “We currently have at least two deputies on the road per shift and want to replace three officers who have retired and left for other opportunities. I am holding off on doing that until we see what happens with the levy.”

Kent said his department also provides security at the Crawford County Courthouse, operates the DARE program at several schools and provides detectives and other officers as part of the Crawford County Special Response Team.

“The sheriff’s office runs on two separate budgets, this levy 2.75-mills property tax levy funds a large portion of the enforcement budget,” Kent said. “The jail budget is partially supported by a half-percent sales tax and the enforcement budget is partially funded by the Criminal Justice Levy. Those funds cannot transfer over to the other.”

Kent stressed that he is very frugal with taxpayer money.

“The money of taxpayers throughout the county is not being wasted. We watch very closely how we spend money,” Kent said.

Here are some of the services that the Criminal Justice Levy provides funding for:

  • 55,086 calls came into the dispatch center in 2018
  • Dispatch emergencies for 10 Township Fire Departments, Bucyrus City Fire Department, Portsmouth Ambulance, New Washington Police Department, Enforcement and Jail at the Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management Agency and the Dog Warden
  • Emergency Medical Dispatching
  • We recently added three more radios that dispatch will be monitoring
  • All wireless 911 calls and rural 911 calls
  • Report weather conditions to the schools and call snow levels
  • Enter Amber alerts for a seven-county region
  • We hold all arrest warrants issued by the courts.
  • Civil process – subpoenas, evictions, protection and court orders. Sheriff’s sales
  • 682 CCW permits issued in 2018 with renewals every five years.

ROAD PATROLS

  • Most visible side of the Sheriff’s Office. Patrol 402 square miles, over 900 miles of roadways
  • Respond to calls for service, investigating crimes, investigate 492 crashes last year
  • Currently two deputies per shift are assigned to enforcement.
  • D.A.R.E. in eight schools and School security officers in one school
  • Courthouse Security – security at election polls
  • Project Lifesaver
  • Cell Phone Investigations
  • K-9 Unit (two bloodhounds and one patrol / drug dog)
  • Detectives involved in METRICH (10-county drug task force)
  • NARCAN / AED’s / First Aid Kits- deputies sometimes arrive on scene before medical personnel
  • Special Response Team (SRT) multi agency team – resource to all of Crawford County.
  • Directed or assisted in 31 search warrants. 87 people were charged with felony crimes. Those crimes included drug offenses, burglaries, thefts, and sexually motivated crimes.
  • Home visits on sex offenders
  • School, business, and residential checks
  • Cruisers – we still have cruisers in the fleet with over 200,000 miles on them. We try to replace three cruisers a year. They must be in good working condition for high speeds and to respond to calls. These vehicles get a lot of hard use.
  • Computers – we house the records management system and computer aided dispatch for 18 agencies and the 911 system for the entire county.

Early voting currently is underway at the Crawford County Board of Elections in the lower level of the Crawford County Courthouse.