Associated Press Published

Officials Vote to Shift Funds to Save Deputies' Jobs

Map of West Virginia with McDowell County highligted

McDowell County officials have voted to shift funds in an effort to keep six deputies that are slated to be laid off by the end of the year.

Prior to the McDowell County Commission’s vote Tuesday, Sheriff Martin West told officials that if the deputies are laid off, the department would lose its night shift and could be seriously hampered in its daytime emergency responsibilities.

The commissioners voted to give the sheriff’s department $21,000 a month that had been bound for the McDowell County Ambulance Authority. The money will be disbursed from January to July 2017, in what officials called a temporary fix.

County Commission President Harold McBride says the ambulance authority had to be idled earlier this year due to financial difficulties.