Commissioners, sheriff reach funding deal

After three months of squabbling with Sheriff Bruce Peoples, Custer County commissioners compromised Monday and agreed to go back to the way things were about purchases using money from the Jail Trust Fund. That is, they will let the sheriff contact their chairman when he wants to buy something using trust fund money and the chairman will decide if it’s okay to pay for it that way.
They will not, however, retroactively approve anything that’s been bought in the meantime. Including a $920 touch-screen monitor that kicked off the dispute back in July.
The trust fund is composed of money left over from a half-penny sales tax that was used to pay for construction of the jail. After being extended once to pay off a civil judgment against the county stemming from the actions of former sheriff Mike Burgess, the sales tax is no longer being collected. It is not the same sales tax that commissioners voted Monday to put on the ballot for a renewal vote on Feb. 14, 2017.