Depletes entire account of sheriff’s office

An attempt to help out the Lawrence County Fair has wiped out the account the Lawrence County Sheriff uses to pay leases for some of the office’s cruisers.

Without any discussion at the Lawrence County Commission’s Aug. 27 meeting, $50,000 was transferred from various accounts in the general fund budget to the Lawrence County Agriculture Society.

Money was taken out of 23 line items ranging from 83 cents to $6,534.70. However the largest transfer was $34,924.88 from the sheriff’s lease account. Since there are no more lease payments this year, no more transfers were expected out of it. The account now has a zero balance.

“I am concerned with the tight budget the sheriff’s office already has, it concerns me when this money is removed from an account we may need to draw from,” sheriff Jeff Lawless said.

Voting on giving the fair board $50,000 were commissioners Bill Pratt and Freddie Hayes Jr. Commission president Les Boggs had left the meeting just prior to the vote for another appointment. Added to that money was $15,000 that Lawrence County Clerk Mike Patterson gave to the general fund from excess title fees that he had earmarked for the fair on top of an annual commission contribution to the fair board of $15,000 each spring.

Rain plagued the fair this July cutting into gate proceeds, said Hayes, who is also an honorary member of the fair board.

“It was in order to pay for the expenses, where they didn’t make any money because of the weather,” he said. “They had done some improvements and the fair didn’t make enough to cover their expenses.”

The gate proceeds and rent from camping spaces are the major sources of revenue for the fair, although there are two buildings on the grounds that are rented out throughout the year. The Payne building is used periodically by an auction house and pays $1,000 a month and a restaurant in the former Monty’s Pizza building.

“The restaurant more or less pays for the electric bill,” Hayes said. “We have to support our youth and the senior citizens in the county.”

The commission plans to go ahead with borrowing $40,000 from the county’s Neighborhood Investment Program to buy a van for the sheriff’s office used to transport prisoners out of county to combat overcrowding at the jail.

“I think we have done a good job for community safety and give the sheriff everything he asks for,” Hayes said.

In a special meeting on June 26, 2012, the fair board unanimously agreed to sell the three parcels that make up the fairgrounds to the Lawrence County Port Authority. The port authority, an arm of the county commission, was to take over a $700,000 note the fair board had with Ohio River Bank. Interest rate is 3 percent.

The port authority gave the fair board a 20-year lease purchase agreement with the lease payments going through the port authority to pay off the note. The note was taken out to pay for building a new barn three years ago. The first attempt to build the barn for approximately $400,000 ended when the contractor was accused of not doing what he had promised. Soon after that the contractor declared bankruptcy. Approximately an additional $300,000 was needed to finish the job.

According to a 2012-2013 state audit of the fair board payment schedule to the port authority started in 2013 with an annual payment of $25,522. The next payments were $26,378 in 2014; and $27,261 in 2015. Payments will be $28,175 in 2016; and $29,199 in 2017. From 2018 to 2022, payments will be $32,179.40 annually and from 2023 to 2027 payments will be $79,082.80 annually.

“It is no secret I support agriculture,” Pratt said. “This is really an investment in the county. The Lawrence County Fair has been around 152 years and occasionally will need a boost because of the weather. As long as I am commissioner I will see that it will succeed.”