Connect With Your Community!
Connect With Your Community!
The Broadwater County Sheriff's Office will host three public meetings later this month regarding the possible Mill Levy renewal.
The meetings, which will begin at 6 p.m., will take place on Wednesday, January 22, at the Winston Fire Hall, Tuesday, January 28, at the Townsend Community Room, and Thursday, January 30, at the Headwaters Livestock Auction in Three Forks.
According to Broadwater County Sheriff Nick Rauser, when local residents passed a levy five years ago, they wanted a few things to be done, including more deputies, restarting the reserve program, and fixing wages to retain employees.
Rauser said that during the five years, they have been able to hire two new deputies with the help of a COPS (Community Oriented Police Services) grant.
"This has helped tremendously to get more of a presence on the south end of the County. The grant has now expired, and the deputies are fully funded with the help of the mill levy," Rauser said.
Along with the two new deputies, Rauser shared that the reserve deputy program has returned, they have fixed wages with better retention than it has ever been, and they have added a School Resource Officer in Townsend.
"We also have in the budget to hire another Deputy. I am doing my best to get a resident Deputy for the South end of Broadwater County with that position. However, we need the mill levy to continue to provide these services to the residents. If we didn't have the mill levy the Law Enforcement Services provided in Broadwater County would be diminished greatly. The mill levy expires this spring, and we will have to have the public make another decision on what they would like to see us do regarding the mill levy. I am going to be having meetings and Facebook Live videos to help reach people. I want to be transparent," Rauser said.
